Every Move Counts
by madsthenerdygirl
Summary: In chess, every move you make counts. Every time you move a piece, it can have affects that you never imagined. And once you make that move… there's no going back. AU take on Season 5.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Every Move Counts**

**Rating: Clearly you weren't paying attention when you clicked on the story.**

**Disclaimer: Castle owns my soul. ABC owns Castle, and Disney owns ABC. Therefore, Disney owns my soul. And I own nothing. Damn it.**

**Summary: In chess, every move you make counts. Every time you move a piece, it can have affects that you never imagined. And once you make that move… there's no going back. AU take on Season 5.**

**Author's Note: Okay, folks, here we go! Buckle up! This is my first long story since… well, since a long time, and it's going to be a twisted one. We've got Johanna Beckett's murder, a mysterious girl, Alexis' future and love life, plus a dash of Esplanie! And that's just the beginning! Now, two quick things you should know before you start.**

**One, this takes place over the summer, namely, from May to September. I like the idea of Castle and Beckett spending the entire summer making love in the Hamptons, but hey, it's how it worked out. I wanted to get this out before Season 5 but it didn't work out that way so it's AU now. Whoops.**

**Two, I want to allay any fears you have about my original characters. In my first Castle story, "When", I killed off an OC and everyone got mad at me (sorry). I promise you now that any major OC that I introduce will survive.**

**Now, without further ado, onto the story!**

_Blouse._

_Belt._

_Hands glide over chest._

_Thumbs stroke thighs._

_Nails dig into shoulders._

_Hands grip ass._

_Tongues slide together, mouths open._

_Panting._

_Gasping._

_Hands held._

_Fingers interlocked._

_Thrusting._

_Arching._

_Sucking._

_Licking._

_Nipping at throats, chins, breasts, ears…_

_Tangled, dripping locks._

_Fingers speared in hair._

_Noses brush._

_Whispered words._

_Endearments._

_Apologies._

_Promises._

_Thunder rolling._

_Wide, wild eyes._

_Biting._

_Stroking._

_Soundless cries._

_A flash of lightning._

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Warm.

Heavy.

Heavy blankets… heavy arm… heavy breathing.

Legs… she couldn't tell which legs were hers. They were tangled up with his, and the blankets were twisted around both of them like a boa constrictor.

"Mmm… Rick?" Kate tried to shift a little, her world still fuzzy.

He didn't stir.

She kicked at him lazily, but her movements only caused him to tighten his grip on her.

"Castle…" She warned him.

At the sound, his breathing rhythm changed slightly and he groaned out some words.

"Castle, I have to pee." She said.

He mumbled something, but all that she could make out was "stay".

With an exasperated sigh, Kate turned and wiggled out of his embrace. She took a moment to gaze down at her partner, a smile blooming helplessly on her face. She kissed him softly, feeling his lips tug back a little at the sensation.

Finally gathering the strength to pull away, she got up and went to deal with business. She couldn't avoid inspecting herself in the mirror. Her hair was limp and tangled in more knots than an Eagle Scout could undo, her skin was glowing and sprinkled with large hickeys, and her lips were bruised and swollen. Her inner thighs were red and scratched, and her breasts her so tender it was almost painful to touch them. Her legs ached, and she was certain that bending down (or even sitting) would be beyond her for a while.

She looked thoroughly loved.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Light.

Annoying, bothersome light, it was streaming in through the curtains, forcing itself into the room and dancing across his eyelids. Rick groaned, rolling towards the empty place formerly occupied by–

Kate?

He opened his eyes, taking in the empty bed. The flood of light streaming in morphed, becoming a flood of empty abandonment, and he collapsed further into the bed. He was tempted to think that it had all been a dream; a crazy, torturous, haunting dream that his sleep-deprived brain had thought up (he'd spent the last week up all night worried about her, and had been running on empty last night). But the rumpled sheets, the faint smell of her – cherries and arousal – and, most of all, his body's condition, all told him that it had been no dream.

She'd been here.

And now she was gone.

Various emotions shot through him, starting with disbelief and ending with despair, with a good amount of anger tainting all of them. He couldn't believe that she'd done this to him… but in a way, he could. Kate Beckett couldn't let moments of weakness alone. She had to back away from them, rescind them, cover them up.

A figure slipped into bed beside him, curling up into his side.

"I'm not going to be fit to be seen in public for at least a week. Fifteen hickeys, Castle. Fifteen. I look like I was mauled by a child with exceptionally tiny fists."

He blinked.

Kate looked at him, a little concerned at his lack of response. "Rick?" She asked softly.

He lunged for her, pinning her to the bed, his lips on hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth, stroking hers. Her hips lifted instinctually, her gasp of surprise swallowed by one or both of them.

"What was that for?" She asked when they broke apart.

His fingers continued to stroke her skin, dancing over her abdomen and sides. He couldn't stop touching her.

"I thought…" He swallowed. "I thought you'd left."

She didn't bite his head off, which in all honesty he'd been a little concerned about. Her eyes softened.

"I couldn't… I can't, leave you." She whispered. Her throat constricted, and she smiled waveringly.

"Good, because I'm not letting you." He brushed his lips against hers before sitting up. "Alexis won't be back until Monday morning and Mother's in the Hamptons,"

"You told me before, remember? The movie marathon?" Kate teased.

"Yes, well, anyway, we have the place to ourselves." Rick continued. "So I'm making pancakes."

He stood up, and promptly collapsed back into the bed. His legs just wouldn't hold him. Kate giggled (Kate Beckett _giggled_!) and he looked up at her ruefully.

"Guess I'm not the only one affected." She winked.

Clearly, an entire night spent making love to Kate had turned his legs into jelly.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Beckett stood over the stove, waiting to flip the pancakes. It was Monday morning, and she was reveling in the feeling of not having to get up at five a.m. A part of her already knew that she'd be back on the force someday, somehow, but for now she was enjoying the idea of sleeping in and making a leisurely breakfast.

Castle sidled up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. "The shower felt too big without you." He whispered, his open mouth caressing her jaw and neck.

Oh. _Oh._ Why she hadn't let him do this to her years ago, she didn't know.

"It was the only way you'd actually use the shampoo as it was intended." She quipped, flipping the pancakes.

He realized what she was wearing, and frowned. "Are you going to wear all of my dress shirts, Kate? Not that it isn't extremely hot but I'm going to have to be able to concentrate at some point and if all I can think about is that you wore the same shirts that I'm now wearing, I'm not going to–"

Castle's good-natured tirade was cut short by Beckett turning and using her teeth to tug on his bottom lip. She hummed appreciatively.

"What was I saying?" He asked.

"Nothing important." She assured him.

He had just hoisted her up onto the kitchen counter, her legs around his waist, when there was the sound of the key in the lock. There was only time for Beckett to slide off the counter (and Castle) and fix her shirt when the door opened and Alexis stumbled in.

It was like those comedies where Person A catches Person B and C in the act. They all stood there, frozen, eyes wide. Even though both her father and Beckett were decently dressed (well, if boxer shorts and a t-shirt, and a borrowed dress shirt and panties were considered "decent"), there could be no doubt as to what had been going on in Alexis' absence.

One, two, three seconds passed. And then…

"Thank _God_!"

In a blur of red hair, Alexis sprinted across the loft and barreled into both of them, hugging the couple with all of her might. Surprised but pleased, they responded, hugging her back. The girl pulled back, her face split in half with the force of her grin.

"Pumpkin, we didn't…"

Alexis shot him a glare. "No apologizing. We've all been waiting forever for this to happen, and while I am horrified at the thought of what you two have been up to alone in here all weekend, I'm honestly relieved. Do you have any idea how stressful this has been for me?"

Castle and Beckett looked at each other. "Uh…"

"It's been nothing short of aggravating, and with college to prepare for the last thing I need is more stress. So, I am going to leave…" Alexis started backing out the door. "And you two are going to have a lovely morning to yourselves, okay? Okay! Bye!"

With a cheery wave and a thumbs up, the girl vanished through the front door.

"Well, that was surreal." Castle said.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Alexis might have caught them in the act – or about to get into the act – but Martha didn't really walk in on or discover anything. She just seemed to, well, _know_. It cleared up a lot of potential awkwardness, because both Beckett and Castle had been kind of dreading the conversation they'd have to have with her, but it was a little surprising. While it was better than having to explain everything and deal with the woman's dramatics, it was, well… disconcerting, so to speak, that they were found out so easily.

They could only hope the folks down at the precinct didn't have what Martha dubbed a "mother's instinct".

One definitely good thing came out of Martha's knowing, however – she insisted that the two of them take over the Hamptons house for two weeks.

"I'll be just fine, darlings! The social situation has become perfectly dreadful, anyway – the _worst_ family politics have been going on lately… something about a betrayal and fraud and someone claiming to be someone else's daughter and it was really this other girl the entire time and… well, the gossip was fun for two days but I'm just tired of everybody glaring at each other. Goodness knows I get enough drama onstage! You two have some fun. Go! Be lovers! Go skinny-dipping in the ocean or something!"

And so they went.

It was lovely. Beckett had known the house would be spacious, and lovely, and with a great view, but no daydreams or Internet searching (she was a detective, for crying out loud…) could properly prepare her for when she saw it the first time.

It was large, and gleaming white, of course, she'd been expecting that, but Beckett never understood the appeal of it until she was _there_. The sand, and the smell of the beach and the wood of the house, and the way the sun hit it… and it just sat there, looking to fresh and clean and inviting, and Beckett couldn't help but think,

_This is what houses in Heaven must look like._

But of course, Castle wouldn't let her stew in her reverie. He grabbed her hand, pulling her away from her perch on the door of the Ferrari (they'd taken turns driving) and hauling her up the walk, bursting at the seams with his eagerness to give her the grand tour.

The grand tour had started and ended in the bedroom, and Beckett didn't even get a chance to see the rest of the house until that evening.

When she did, she found herself thinking that if she wasn't careful, she could really come to think of this as home. She could see herself in the kitchen, cooking up something for Lanie and the boys, Alexis being helpful and Castle being very unhelpful, a glass of wine on the counter for her to sip from as she went about her work. She could picture herself with a book, curled up in one of the deck chairs or the window seat, sensing Castle's presence as he tried to sneak up on her. She could imagine lounging on the couch in front of the massive fire as a summer storm raged outside, the thick, large raindrops pounding on the roof and beating the sand, whipping up the ocean into a dark, frothy potion worthy of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters. But she would be safe and warm inside, snuggled up with Castle, watching the flames dance or even lying flat on her stomach on the carpet, beating his ass at Monopoly while Alexis quietly built up a business empire of her own and ended up bankrupting them both, daintily sipping her hot chocolate the entire time and looking far too innocent. That girl could be devious when she wanted to.

Yes, Beckett could see this house as home. And instead of scaring her, as it would have a year or even a few months or weeks ago, it was wonderful. She welcomed it, embraced it with open arms and hugged it tightly to her chest. She wanted a home. She wanted a home with Castle.

And so she relaxed, soaking up the sun and letting herself tan for the first time in four years, going swimming every single day, either in his pool or the ocean that was only a two minute's walk away, and reading nearly every book in his immense library. He'd been so pleased at her reaction when he'd shown her the room, the walls completely covered in books from floor to ceiling. She'd felt like Belle when Beast showed her his library – just filled with wonder and excitement.

And the sex; she couldn't forget the sex. Actually, she wouldn't have been too surprised if she had forgotten a few sessions just because her mind had been blown to high heaven.

For the first week, it was just the two of them. They read together, went out on dates together (Castle insisted upon 'wining and dining' her and generally treating her like a queen no matter how embarrassed it made her), swam and cooked and made love together, day after day after day, and Beckett wondered what the hell she'd done to deserve something this good.

Then Alexis arrived, and it got even better. The next week was filled with baking and cooking, giggles and stories about childhood, board games galore, pranks on each other, games of tag in the surf and going to see every blockbuster that hit the local movie theater. Beckett was a little nervous but grateful that Alexis had accepted their relationship so easily, and honestly wanted to get to know the girl better no matter what her relationship with Castle was, especially now that Alexis was on her way to college in a few short months.

On the last night before they all headed back, Beckett found herself curled up with Castle on the sofa, his arm around her shoulders. She had her head on his chest and her feet tucked in, a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Alexis was sitting on the floor, her head resting on her dad's knee, cradling her own cup of melted chocolaty goodness. Unconsciously, Beckett reached down and began to stroke the redhead's hair; it was something that her mother had done with her, and it just felt right. She didn't even think about it or realize she was doing it until Alexis spoke up.

"Kate?" Alexis said.

"Yeah, honey?" Beckett replied sleepily. Castle was out like a light, having succumbed to sleep about twenty minutes ago.

"That feels good." Alexis said, leaning more into the woman's touch. She turned her head and smiled up at the detective. "I'll admit… I was a little worried. You and Dad were having a hard time of it those past few weeks, and I was kind of afraid that it was over. But I'm…" She swallowed, and then smiled bravely. "I'm really happy."

"You know that I like you a lot, Alexis." Beckett said. "I always have. And I love you father very much, and I hope that it never comes to this but if we do break up, nothing's going to change between us. I promise you that. You ever need anything, I'm there for you."

Alexis swallowed again, her eyes shining. "That would be nice." She said. "I would like that a lot."

Beckett smiled and Alexis closed her eyes, leaning back again. Beckett continued to stroke her hair until the girl fell asleep, at which point Beckett woke up Castle and helped him carry the teen up to bed before they tumbled into their own, too sleepy to even change into pajamas.

Her sleep was dreamless that night except for the sensation of warmth surrounding her, cocooning her, and she felt more rested in the morning than she had in years.

**Anyone catch the reference to another popular ABC show? I don't watch it, personally, but I've seen enough promos to figure out some parts of the plot. Anyhoo so begins my latest multi-chapter Castle story! It's been a while… let's hope I'm not rusty…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, any Once Upon a Time fans out there? Am I the only one who sees similarities between Emma Swan and our own Kate Beckett? Both are determined, both work for the law, both have a sense of justice, both are determined and both have issues with intimacy. I could go on, but you aren't really interested in that, are you? You want me to just shut up and get on with the story, I'm sure. Okay, then. I'll shut up now.**

Alexis tapped her fingernails along the window of the car, chatting on the phone.

"Okay, great! I'll be there Tuesday. And if you need me to come early or anything just let me know."

"You'd think that she could wait a day before signing up for half the volunteer programs in the city." Castle grumbled good-naturedly, shooting his daughter a loving glance through the rearview mirror.

"She's a go-getter, Castle." Beckett said, grinning.

"See? Kate gets it." Alexis snapped the phone shut and stuck out her tongue at her father.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you two like each other." Castle groaned. "Are you always going to gang up on me?"

Beckett and Alexis looked at each other for a beat before turning to him and saying in scary synchronicity,

"Always."

Castle gave an exaggerated groan worthy of Martha Rodgers.

They pulled into the underground parking for the apartment complex, Castle executing a neat turn into a parking spot that impressed Beckett just a little. The car had barely stopped, the engine still purring away, when Alexis barreled out, opening the trunk and pulling out their luggage.

"I have to unpack and do the laundry and finish signing up for stuff online before the ball tonight!"

"Uh… ball?" Castle asked.

"It's this charity thing I signed up for. I'm helping at the silent auction." Alexis explained.

Her father sighed. "And here I'd dared to think that you were going to be a ravishing debutante and have a wild time. Another hope dashed."

Alexis gave her father her famous look. "Dad, debutants have charity works to do, too."

"I thought those were just in the south?" Beckett professed as they began to carry their suitcases towards the elevator.

"If they were, I wouldn't be one." Alexis made a face. "Gram's idea. But the volunteer work is fantastic, and the contacts I'm making should come in handy later."

"If you're not careful, you'll end up as President." Beckett teased.

Alexis made a face. "Eek – politics."

The second Castle unlocked the loft Alexis dashed in, running around at a speed that would have put the Looney Tunes' meep-meeping Roadrunner to shame. She was a flurry of activity, and the two adults could only stand in minor shock and stare at the redheaded whirlwind.

"I think it might be best if we got out of her way for a bit." Castle advised.

"Well, I do have to go grovel for Gates." Beckett sighed. "Might as well get it over with."

"Maybe I could try charming her?" Castle asked.

"Yeah – that'll work, seeing how much she loved you last year."

"But I've changed! I've matured! I've grown! I've written another best seller!"

"Cool it, Castle."

:::::::::::::::::::::::

The talk with Gates was actually less painful then Beckett had thought it would be. The captain listened to her reasons with more patience than she'd exhibited towards Beckett all of the previous year, before nodding carefully and saying her peace.

"I'll admit, Beckett, that you are a valuable asset to this department – and the force in general. I've missed being able to count on you to handle the tough cases. I will let you back… on one condition."

"Yes, sir?" Beckett asked.

"You've served out what would have been your suspension time, so I'll be expecting you to report in tomorrow morning. You can even bring in that writer of yours if you want. But if your mother's case ever comes up again, you will not be allowed to work it under _any_ condition. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." Beckett responded. It pained her to say, especially when she'd been so close before, but it had to be done. She wanted to move on and become a better person for both her sake and the sake of others, and she knew that if she got involved in her mother's case again it would drag her down and drown her. She would have to wait until she was much more stable to attempt digging into that again.

"All right then… Detective." Gates honest-to-God _smiled_ at Beckett. "Welcome back."

"Thank you." Beckett smiled. "Sir." She added hastily.

Castle was waiting for her by the elevator, chatting with Ryan. He jumped up when she approached.

"So?" He asked. "What did she say?"

Beckett let her grin overtake her face. "I'm back!"

"Yes!" Castle and Ryan 'fed the birds' excitedly.

"Um… wait… why were you two here together?" Ryan asked suddenly.

Castle and Beckett froze.

"Uh…"

"I came along because I couldn't wait to find out the news." Castle said. "And to see if she said I could continue to tag along."

Ryan nodded, accepting the excuse despite the fact that it was about as flimsy as wet paper.

"Well, I'm going to tell Lanie." Beckett said. "See you two later!" She dashed off before either man could say anything more.

"Did Beckett just… gush?" Ryan asked.

"That's nothing." Castle assured him. "You should have seen her when I…." He stopped as Ryan gave him a strange look and he realized what he was going to divulge. "When, I, uh, started that charity in her mother's name."

Ryan relaxed, grinning. "I remember that. You really made her year with that one."

"Yeah…" Castle smiled goofily at the memory before snapping back to the present. "Well, I should get home – lots to do… writing to get done… before Gina changes her mind and decides to make good on her promise to cut off my foot…"

"Been reading _Misery_, has she?" Ryan joked.

Castle shuddered and made a face. "God, I hope not. Maybe that's why her threats if I don't meet my deadline are becoming more colorful lately." He clapped Ryan on the back. "See ya!"

"Uh, hey Castle?" Ryan called.

"Yeah?" Castle turned back.

"You haven't…" Ryan figited. "You haven't spoken to Javier lately, have you?"

Castle shook his head. "I was in the Hamptons the past two weeks. Why?"

"No reason." Ryan shrugged. "His suspension is over tomorrow and I just… well, he hasn't returned any of my apology messages."

"You mentioned that you broke the bro code and that you deserve to be ex-communicated, right?" Castle checked.

"Yup. Twice." Ryan said, his shoulders slumping.

"Ah, don't worry about it; I'm sure he'll come around. Say hi to Jenny for me!" Castle waved.

"Sure thing!" Ryan replied.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Beckett strode into Lanie's lab like it had been years instead of two weeks.

"Hey, stranger!" Lanie grinned, getting up from her microscope and giving her best friend a hug. "Where have you been, girl?"

"I took a little vacation." Beckett said.

Lanie looked her up and down. "What happened to you?" She asked with her trademark suspicious tone.

"What do you mean?" Beckett asked.

"Something happened, girl, you are practically glowing!" Lanie said accusingly.

"Nothing happened, Lanie, I just got a tan for the first time since… whenever I took my last spring break in college." Beckett said. She was _glowing_? Sex with Castle must have really done a number on her – she hadn't gotten 'the glow' since her first time with Will Sorenson.

"Hmm." Lanie hummed, not entirely convinced.

"So… are you off tonight?" Beckett asked.

Lanie made an annoyed sound with her tongue and rolled her eyes. "I wish! You still owe me a dinner! But I've got some top screens to run and a shitload of data archiving to do. I've been putting it off way too long and my boss is raggin' on me. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Ooh, can't; Ca–" Beckett cleared her throat. "I'm going to the theater tomorrow with my dad."

"Next Tuesday, then." Lanie said.

"It's a date." Beckett grinned.

They hugged again. "All right girlie – you run along and break out the champagne 'cause you are back!" Lanie said.

Beckett laughed. "Bye, Lanie."

"See ya!"

It felt so good to be back.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

"Dinner!"

The blonde girl at the computer ignored her mother, opting instead to keep focusing on her online chess game.

"'Chessmaster1907, prepare to bow before me." She whispered dramatically, moving her bishop."

"Eddie, I said dinner!"

"Hold on!" Eddie called back. The screen in front of her flashed the words _Checkmate – Black Pawn wins._

"Yes!" The teen fist-pumped, her blue eyes dancing. "And she remains the reigning champion of online chess! The crowd goes wild!"

"_Eddie! Get your butt down here before I kick it to kingdom come!_"

"Coming!" Eddie turned off her computer and crossed the tiny hall into the kitchen/dining room/living area. "What's to eat?"

"Spaghetti." Her mother replied. She had darker hair with a downy quality to it, straddling the line between blonde and brunette. She had a larger nose but big, bright blue eyes.

Eddie didn't bother whining about how this was the third time this week they'd had spaghetti. She knew that it was all her mother could afford. Kraft macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, Hamburger Helper, and PB&Js ruled their life. Instead, the girl flopped down on the worn couch, picking her bowl up from the scratched coffee table (missing one leg and partially propped up by her study books) and digging in.

"Is the pasta overcooked?" Her mother asked.

"No, Mom, this is great." Eddie assured her. "You make the best pasta."

Her mother beamed, but her eyes remained sad. They were always sad.

"You finish eating, okay hon? I'm going to take out the trash."

"Okay."

"Clean up your dishes."

"Okay."

"And don't let anyone in the apartment."

"Okay."

"That's my baby." Her mother caressed her neck and ran her hand through her daughter's hair as she passed. Eddie grinned, watching her mother heave the trash bag over her shoulder and leave, closing the front door with a quiet _snick_.

Eddie ate for about thirty seconds of silence before the strange ringing began. She froze, frowning, tilting her head and doing her best to perk up her ears.

Was that a phone?

The girl got up, still frowning, and tried to track down the source of the shrill ringing. Neither she nor her mom had a phone. They were another way for people to track them – whomever those 'people' her mom was so scared of may be. But sure enough, there was a phone ringing coming from somewhere in the tiny apartment. The walls in a project building like this were thin but they weren't _that_ thin.

Eddie followed the sound back down the hall past the doll-sized bathroom and into the bedroom she shared with her mother. It wasn't coming from her end of the room. In fact, it seemed to be coming from the chest of drawers her mother used (having insisted that Eddie take the closet). Eddie pulled open each drawer, the ringing getting louder when she opened the underwear drawer. She rifled through until her hand seized upon a hard, metal object that was definitely not a vibrator.

She pulled it out. The burner phone shrieked in her ears, insisting that she answer it. The number was blocked.

Tentatively, knowing that her mother would probably skin her alive for this, Eddie answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Who is this?"

The voice at the other end of the line startled her. It was male, and deep – a little throaty, even. It was most definitely annoyed.

"Um… who is _this_?" Eddie asked.

"You must be Eddie. Where's your mother?"

"Uh…" Eddie stumbled. How did this guy know who she was? "She's… not here."

"I didn't ask if she was there, I asked where she was." The man replied impatiently.

"She's taking out the trash."

"And where is she taking it to?"

"The big dumpster in the alley. We don't have an internal trash chute." Eddie explained.

"Take me to her, now. This is urgent – they've found you. You have to get out now." The man didn't yell or bark, but his voice was forceful. He sounded like he was pressed for time, and she could feel his urgency transfer to her. Eddie got up, the phone still pressed to her ear, and began to make her way back to the living room. She grabbed her shoes and started to slip them on.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I didn't even know that my mom had a phone, so I think–"

Three distinctive pops rang through the air. They almost sounded like tiny firecrackers, except for the metallic ring that floated in the air for a millisecond afterwards. Eddie had grown up in the dirtier parts of town. She knew what that sound was.

And it was coming from right beneath the living room window. The living room window that looked down over an alley containing the apartment building's dumpster…

"Mom!"

Eddie tore out of the apartment, phone clutched in her hand, leaping down the steps three at a time and nearly twisting her ankle on the landing. She barreled past an old lady neighbor and burst through the lobby door, skidding to a halt and veering left, turning into the alley.

Her mother laid there, her head and shoulders resting against the alley wall. Three gunshot wounds spread blood like drooling mouths, gaping out of her chest and staining her green sweater. Eddie flung herself down in front of her mother, pushing her hair out of her pale face.

"Mom?" Eddie asked. "Mama?"

Her mother tried to speak, but couldn't. She was slowly bleeding out, her life pouring out of her through the black holes in her chest. Her breathing began to fade.

"Mom…" Eddie began to do CPR, pressing down on her chest to help her breath. "No, no, no, Mom, please…" She was almost frantic. Her mother's eyes slid closed. Eddie grabbed her, shaking her, pulling her to her. "No!" She screamed. "No, no, no! Stay with me! Damn it, Mama, Mama, please, stay with me Mama…" She sobbed hysterically, shaking her mother's corpse. "Mama!"

Eddie pressed her forehead to her mother's chest. She was crying to violently that she had to close her eyes to stem the flow of tears cascading down her face. It took her a minute to even hear the voice emanating from the phone still clutched in her hand, never mind pay attention to it. When she did, she answered in anger.

"What the fuck do you want?" She shouted into the phone. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"I knew that they were coming after her, yes." The man replied calmly. "Eddie… I'm sorry."

"Like hell you're sorry!" Eddie shouted. She was angry, angry at the entire world, everything around her giving her pain as she realized that her mother was dead. With no shooter around, the man on the phone was the most convenient target for her furious grief. "You knew this would happen!"

"Don't you dare tell me what I am or am not sorry about." The man replied. Eddie shut up, and even paused in her crying for a moment. The man's tone was deadly. "This tragedy hurts me more than you know, so cut your childish crap and listen to me.

"They'll be coming to investigate the apartment soon. They don't know about you yet – they suspect, but they don't know. You have to get out, now, and to a safe place before they find you."

"But where is safe?" Eddie asked. "I don't know anyone."

"Your mother told you what to do in case you had to make a quick getaway, right? Escape and hide your face?"

"Yes, but she was always alive then. We had a scheduled meeting point–"

"Just answer my questions. Now you do what your mother told you, but then you go and find…"

Eddie frowned. "But why would I–"

"Do as I tell you."

Again, no yelling, but this was a man who was used to being obeyed. Eddie didn't ask any more questions. He finished his instructions, and hung up – but not before leaving her with some parting words.

"Remember that you are not safe. The people you are going to will keep you safe for now, but only as long as they don't know the truth. Once they do, they will be in as much danger as you are; even more danger, in truth. So you keep on your toes. You watch your back. And whatever happens, you be prepared to run. You got that?"

Eddie nodded, then realized that he couldn't see her. "Yes." She replied. "Yes, I got it."

"Good girl. Now go."

"But my mom–"

"Go, damn it! There isn't much time! Go!"

The man hung up. Eddie pocketed the phone, standing up slowly. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she looked down at her mother's body, slumped down in a filthy, anonymous alley.

"I'm sorry I never believed you." Eddie whispered. "And I'm sorry that I have to leave you. I love you, Mama."

And Eddie did when her mother had always prepared her to do.

She hid her face and ran.

::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Hey, Castle." Beckett said, smiling like she hadn't seen him in days instead of just an hour ago that morning. She took the coffee he offered her gratefully. She'd had one a couple of hours ago but man, did she need her fix.

"Mornin', Beckett!" Esposito called. "Hey, Castle!"

"Hey!" Castle replied.

"What've we got, Espo?" Beckett asked.

The junior detective got a strange look on his face. "Well, I gotta tell you, Beckett, you're not going to like this…"

"Beckett!" Lanie called.

"Hold on." Beckett said to Espo, changing direction to head towards the crouching M.E.

"But…" Esposito sighed.

"What's up?" Castle asked.

"This body, it's… um… it's got a lot of similarities to another one." Esposito explained.

Castle frowned. "What kind of similarities?"

Beckett reached Lanie and froze in her tracks.

The M.E. was crouching by the body of a woman. A woman lying slumped against an alley wall, riddled with bullet holes.

"She bled out." Lanie said softly.

Beckett's world began to spin.

"Beckett?" Castle asked. "What–" He froze as well. "Oh…"

Beckett's throat constricted several times before she could speak. "What… what happened?" She asked.

"Well, I'd like to pass it off as gang violence," Lanie said.

Beckett flinched involuntarily.

"But there's something here you'll want to see."

Lanie gestured for them to come closer. Both Castle and Beckett bent down, following the examiner's finger.

"You see these smears? And those bits where the blood has congealed a lot? I'll have to take her back to the lab to be sure but I'm pretty sure the first is from handprints and the second is from where blood spurted out when pressure was put on the chest."

"You're saying that… someone tried to give her CPR?" Castle breathed.

Lanie nodded. "Gold star."

"And look at these footprints." Esposito said. "They're from sneakers, and this woman was wearing boots."

Sure enough, the Jane Doe had on big brown sensible boots.

"So there was someone else here." Castle said, standing up.

"A witness." Beckett stood up as well.

"Well you can bet the shooter didn't try and get her heart starting again." Lanie said.

"Canvas the area. I want to know if anyone saw something." Beckett said.

"Neighborhood like this?" Esposito said. "Nobody's going to see anything. They're all selectively blind. And deaf."

"Do it anyway." Beckett insisted. "Castle and I will go check the dead woman's apartment, see what we come up with. Lanie, get her back to the lab. I want a report ASAP."

Lanie and Esposito both nodded. Beckett turned away and began walking. Castle jogged to catch up with her.

"You okay?" He whispered.

Beckett stopped and looked at him. "No." She whispered. "I'm not." She drew in a shaky breath. "But as soon as we catch this son of a bitch I will be."

"Kate." Castle said. "You don't think…"

"It's connected to my mom somehow?" Beckett sighed. "I don't know. But until we can prove that it does, I'm investigating this like it's any other case."

"Okay." Castle nodded. "Okay." He smiled reassuringly. "You know that I'm here for whatever you need, right?"

Beckett smiled. "I know." She nodded. "And I'm glad, Castle. I really am glad that you're here."

Making sure that no one was watching, she squeezed his hand.

**For those of you who guessed that the fuzzy feelings of happiness would not last long, congratulations! You were right! Time for the real plot to begin… Mwahahaha!**

**This is totally random and I doubt anyone cares, but Eddie is named after a character from Stephan King's Dark Tower series – which is, by the way, the only stuff by Stephan King that I can handle – who is a loud and proud New Yorker. If you're a fantasy fan, I do suggest that you check out the series. It's worth the read.**


	3. Chapter 3

**And this is the part where I panic and pray to God that you all like my OC and don't find her abhorrent and want her to die.**

"Hey, Lanie."

The medical examiner looked up from where she was going over their Jane Doe.

"I don't have anything yet, Esposito, so you better march your butt right back upstairs." She replied, eyeing the junior detective.

"That's not why I'm here." Esposito replied. "It's about Beckett."

"And her behavior at the crime scene? I noticed." Lanie said. She sighed and set down her tools. "First day back from suspension and she gets a copycat case of her mother's murder."

"It sucks." Esposito declared.

Lanie shook her head, staring intently at the dead woman's face. "I don't like it, Javi."

Esposito frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that there's something going on here. I can sense it." Lanie said. "And I… I'm so scared for her…"

Lanie's eyes unexpectedly filled with tears, and Esposito automatically crossed the room to pull her into a hug. The M.E. didn't resist him, allowing him to envelope her and make her feel safe.

"It's not going to be like last time." He promised her. "We're going to keep her safe."

"But if she rushes headlong into things–"

"She won't." He cut her off. "She won't do that, Lanie."

"She's my best friend, Javi." Lanie said. "I was a black girl from Harlem who dreamed of being a doctor. My friends said I was stupid. I didn't have time for games and dates and hanging out at the mall. I was too busy studying. She's my first friend since the third grade and I can't lose her."

"You won't." Esposito promised her. "You won't."

She let him hold her like that for a long while, before gathering herself together and pulling back, awkwardly thanking him and getting back to work. He mumbled an excuse and left, shoving his hands into his pockets so she wouldn't see that they were clenched into fists.

::::::::::::::::::::::

"So what've we got?" Beckett asked Ryan as he approached.

"I…" He trailed off when he saw Esposito glaring at him from his desk. Beckett gave Ryan a look and he resumed speaking. "We got a hit on our Jane Doe. Her name's Viola Baker – formerly Viola Allanwood. She was raised by her single mother and married one Joshua Baker about eighteen years ago. He died under mysterious circumstances about thirteen years ago. It was ruled as an accident – death by allergic reaction – but the officer in charge of the case was suspicious so he sent me some of his personal notes."

Beckett took the packet Ryan offered her and began leafing through the papers. "Anything else about Viola?"

"Her mother's dead, as are her parents-in-law. Natural causes, all of them. Her mother got cancer and her mother-in-law died years before Viola and Joshua met. His father passed away about three years after their marriage from heart failure."

"Any jobs, friends, any way we could talk to someone who knew her?"

"She was actually kind of a recluse. She used to work for one Senator Rickman back when he was Mayor of NYC, which is where she met her husband. About six months after Joshua's death she quit her job and dropped off the face of the earth. We've managed to trace her various places of residence over the last two years but nothing before that."

"What do you mean 'various places'?" Castle asked.

Ryan shrugged. "That woman's been everywhere. All projects or other not so nice areas of New York, but she's stayed in the state for the last two years, as I said. There's some evidence that she was in other states before that but nothing solid. She doesn't have a phone or credit card, and when we talked to her current landlord he said she paid everything in cash. From what we've managed to learn she worked stuff like waitressing jobs and other minimum wage stuff."

"In other words, jobs that were easy to find, easy to work, and easy to leave." Castle noted. "You don't think she's conducting an investigation to write a book about blue collar workers, do you?"

Beckett gave him a look at his reference to their previous case involving one of the Mayor's assistants. It had also ended up involving a sex line. Not exactly Beckett's favorite case.

"What about the kid?" Beckett asked.

"What kid?" Ryan asked in return.

Beckett frowned. "Her daughter."

Ryan gave her his best blank look.

"There was a daughter, or some other female, living with her. We saw the evidence in her apartment." Beckett said, that tone of impatience creeping into her voice.

Ryan flipped through his notes. "Um… I'm sorry. There's nothing here about any kids."

Beckett frowned. She and Castle had canvassed the apartment just a couple of hours ago. They'd found nothing in the living room or kitchen to suggest however many people were living in there, although the state of the furnishings had shown how tight money was. In the single bedroom, however, they found two twin beds on opposite sides of the room, a tiny closet with stuff that would fit a girl that was one size, and a dresser filled with clothes that would fit a woman with a completely different body shape. There had also been two suitcases, two sets of different sized shoes, and two toothbrushes in the bathroom sink. That and other clues pointed to two people, both female (and one almost certainly younger) living in that apartment.

Ryan left the information with them and hastened back to his desk. Beckett frowned, turning to Castle.

"There was someone else in that apartment." She said. "But if it wasn't her daughter, then who was it?"

Castle frowned. "Look, I may be male but I have a daughter. I know how to recognize a parent-child relationship when I see it, and although those clothes in there were cheap they were the same style that Alexis wears. I know the signs. There was a younger girl living there."

"But if there was, why didn't she hear the gunshots?" Beckett asked.

"Maybe she did. Lanie said there was a witness. Someone tried to save Viola Allanwood. What if that person was the same girl sharing her apartment, not some random stranger?"

"But then why did she run?"

"Why was Viola murdered?"

They were at a dead end, and they knew it. Unless they found their witness, and Viola's roommate – who might or might not be the same person – they had nothing.

"Um, Mr. Castle?" Officer Karpowski strode up. "There's a young lady asking for you. She's being rather insistent."

Beckett and Castle looked at each other, sharing the same thought. This could be their mystery girl.

"Let her in. We'll put her in Interrogation Room Three." Beckett said.

The girl sitting at the table when they walked in sat rather calmly. She had dark, downy brown hair cut short, some of which was flopping in front of her eyes. The eyes themselves were dark brown, and a little translucent, which was odd. Her skin was on the dark side, like she had mixed blood. In olden days she might have been dubbed 'mulatto' by an intolerant society. She wore a clean, dark red shirt and faded blue jeans with muddy sneakers. She had a backpack at her feet, which she kept possessively nestled between her legs.

"You wanted to see me, Miss…?" Castle paused.

"Perdita." The girl said. "Are you Mr. Richard Castle?" She asked.

Castle nodded. "This here is Detective Kate Beckett – the finest cop in the NYPD. She lets me partner up with her on cases as a consultant."

The girl nodded politely to Beckett before turning back to Castle. "Is it all right if I ask that no cameras be on? And no one is watching on the other side of the glass, right?"

Beckett turned and tapped on the glass. They still had no idea why this girl was here, so they had no real right to watch her or record anything. Ryan and Esposito turned off the tapes and quietly filed out of the observation room.

"We're alone." Beckett said.

The girl nodded again, and then began to do the strangest thing. She took out a washcloth and began to rub at her face, wrists, and hands. She scrubbed for several minutes before placing the washcloth to the side.

She was now as Caucasian as Castle.

Next came the eyes. She took out the contacts – which explained the strange, translucent quality – revealing big, bright baby blues.

Beckett started. The girl looked straight at her, those blue eyes shining, her hair flopping into her face… she was like someone she knew…. But before Beckett could seize a hold of the thought, the girl lifted her hands to her hairline and tugged, yanking off the tight-fitting wig and showing her true, blond locks, held in a tight bun. When the girl undid the pin, her hair went cascading down around her shoulders.

Finally, the wax lips and putty nose, giving the girl the physical features to match the darker skin color, and before them stood the spitting image (despite the blond hair) of the dead woman cooling in Lanie's locker.

"Sorry to lie, but I had to be sure." The girl explained.

"Perdita." Castle breathed. "From Shakespeare's _A Winter's Tale_."

"Her mother died because of her father." The girl said. "Unfortunately for me, my mother isn't faking."

Beckett felt her heart stutter. Her mother wasn't faking, either. "Why the disguise?" She asked. "And why is there no record of your existence?"

"My mother got someone to erase me." The girl explained. "Oh, I'm sorry – my name's Eddie. Eddie Baker. My dad died when I was five, and that's why my mom started the whole moving around thing. She always claimed that there were people after us. She taught me how to disguise myself, and what to do if someone came looking for us."

"Why did she 'erase you', as you put it?" Beckett was in interrogation mode now.

"She always worried that they – whoever they are, I still don't know – would find her, but if I didn't exist, then they wouldn't look for me. So I would be safe." Eddie shrugged.

"You tried to save her." Beckett said. "You did CPR on your mother. Did you see anything? What happened?"

Eddie shrugged again, her eyes watering. "I don't know. Mom was just taking out the trash while I ate dinner. I heard the gunshots, so I ran out and found her there. Bleeding… dying… she couldn't breathe, and I couldn't think of what to do, so I just started CPR. I know it was stupid but it was the only thing that I could think of. But it didn't work." The girl stared at her hands resting on the table, her eyes red.

"Why did you want to talk to me?" Castle asked.

Eddie sniffed, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "There was a burner phone. In my Mom's underwear drawer. I never even knew that she had a phone. It was ringing, right before she died. There was someone on the other end – a man – trying to warn us. He knew that someone was going to come and kill her, but he was too late. When my Mom died he told me to go to you. He said that you would keep me safe."

"Keep you safe? From what? And why me?" Castle asked.

"I don't know." Eddie shrugged again. "He just gave me a safe phrase, something to convince you to take me in."

"And what was that?"

Eddie looked up, her gaze steady even with tears still threatening to spill over. Her eyes met Castle's and locked.

"He said to tell you that Sophia did not lie about everything."

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Ryan and Esposito stood outside the door of the observation room, both a bit miffed that they were missing out on whatever was going on in the interrogation room. The silence was not filled with the usual camaraderie, however, but tense and thick with resentment and remorse.

It was Ryan who broke the silence, as always.

"Look; I don't know what to say to you to convince you of how sorry I am. I just wanted to protect you. I knew you were going in there blind, and I wanted to get you backup!" Ryan said. He was defiant, and while Ryan would normally back down pretty quickly from his tough-guy mode, there was the rare occasion when he would refuse no matter what. The time he'd been nearly drowned in water was one of them. This was another.

Esposito leveled his best glare at his partner, but Ryan didn't budge. After a minute, Esposito cracked.

"Why didn't you trust me?" He demanded. "I felt like a kid again, y'know? Ratted out to the principal. Why didn't you trust that we could handle it?"

"Because you're my best friend, man! I know you! I trust you with my life but when it comes to yours you're reckless and you don't think!" Ryan burst out. "You care about the lives of others more than yourself – you always have! And while it makes you a great cop it means you constantly put yourself in danger or don't take care of yourself. I mean, look at what happened with Lanie!"

"Don't you dare–"

"Yes, I dare! What happened between you two wasn't you not wanting commitment or any bullshit like that. You loved her, I know you did, and maybe you still do but the reason it all went south was because you don't care about yourself, and that includes your relationships. You've been pushing Beckett and Castle together since day one but you and Lanie? You didn't take the time. And that's the way that it always is.

"Do I trust you with my life? Yes. Do I trust you with Beckett's? Sure. But your own? No way. And that's why I called for backup. 'Cause I knew if I didn't, it would be your coffin I'd be carrying, and maybe even Beckett's, too, without you there to reign her in."

Esposito looked at Ryan for a long time. Ryan braced himself for a ferocious punch that never came. The former Special Forces just stared, and stared, and stared, until finally…

"You're right, man."

One man-hug and pats on the back later, and they were back. Ryan and Esposito, best supporting cast to the main crime-slaying duo in history.

Although, if they ever found out that Castle and Beckett had once dubbed them 'Shaggy and Scooby', they would have been absolutely humiliated.

::::::::::::::::::::::::

Castle stood in the entryway of the loft with Beckett and Eddie, watching his daughter explain her schedule to him in rapid-fire.

"…I have to start my reading for the semester, of course, and I've set myself the challenge of writing a hundred essays, each on a different subject, by the time the summer's over…"

"Alexis."

"…Teacher's aid, and the elementary school…"

"Alexis…"

"…Camp counselor, and a peer counselor at…"

Castle cleared his throat. Alexis didn't hear him.

"…In charge of that, as well as the park cleaning initiative…"

He looked over at Beckett, who gave him a look that clearly said, _she's your daughter_.

"…Improving school lunches program…"

Castle and Beckett started a facial expression war as to who would try and get the teen's attention next.

"…Sports for special needs kids…"

Eddie watched the silent exchange with infinite interest, her backpack straps clutched tightly in her hands.

"…Hospital, although I'm still working with Lanie… And I'm considering training to become a volunteer firefighter as well, but I think that will have to wait until…"

Castle won and Beckett rolled her eyes violently enough to nearly roll them out of her head.

"…Various museums… Library…"

"Alexis, honey?" Beckett started.

"…Tutoring and reviewing essays…"

Beckett tried again.

"Alexis."

"…Assisting Gram, although Paula and Gina will keep me plenty busy…"

Beckett sent Castle an exasperated look, which he returned with one of his own as if to say _I told you she's impossible to stop_.

"…Guide dog trainer… …Girl Scouts…"

"Sorry – she tends to get like this." Castle apologized to Eddie.

The blonde teen shrugged. "No worries. Tell me, does she ever run out of oxygen from talking in a single sentence like that?"

"…Magazine contributor…"

"Not that I know of, but it could happen." Castle mused.

"…Senior citizen center… …food drive…"

Castle stepped forward to physically force his daughter to stop her pacing and explaining.

"…And, of course, continuing my fund-raising for various charities." Alexis finished.

"Tell me, will you have time to sleep?" Eddie asked.

Alexis frowned. "Um… Dad? Who's she?" There was no accusatory tone or jealousy in the redhead's voice, only curiosity. She was used to her father's surprises by now, and had learned to just take them in stride. Besides, she had far too much trust in their relationship to ever worry about someone taking her place.

"Alexis, pumpkin, this is Eddie. She's going to be staying with us for a while." Castle explained.

Alexis gave him a look that showed she clearly expected an explanation. Castle sighed.

"She's… well, it's complicated, but I kind of knew her mother from years back. She…" Castle really didn't see how he could beat around the bush, and he didn't want to lie any more than he had to. "She was murdered last evening, so Eddie's going to stay with us until she can find a permanent home. We don't want her going into the foster system and her eighteenth birthday's only a couple of months away, so it's a lot easier this way."

The two girls eyed each other with suspicion, although for entirely different reasons. Alexis trusted her father and Kate, but this strange girl with a dirty, well-worn backpack held together with duct tape and spit and this weird, hunted animal vibe? Yeah, not so much.

Eddie, for her part, was more suspicious of how someone could look _that_ put together and even attempting to cram everything into one summer that Alexis was going to do. Not to mention that Alexis, for all her soft, kind face and open demeanor, was still one of the girls that Eddie had alternately envied, resented, and poked fun at growing up.

However, the man had told Eddie to trust Castle; that this mystery author, of all people, would keep her safe. And Alexis' trust for her dad and for Kate won out over any reservations about their new houseguest. So both girls decided to play nice. For now.

"It's nice to meet you, Eddie." Alexis stuck out her hand.

"Likewise." Eddie shook it firmly.

"See? I told you they'd like each other." Castle whispered to Beckett.

The girls stared at each other like rival cats, and Beckett raised her eyebrows.

"You haven't won the bet yet, Castle. Just you wait." She assured him.

**I doubt anyone other than Alexis could pull this off. Don't worry, I know that she's only human and will eventually have a breakdown of some kind. *evil smile***

**So… how's everyone liking Eddie? She's not a Mary Sue, is she?**


	4. Chapter 4

**And now it's time to fix that 'boys suck' attitude Alexis has had since Ashley left. (Honestly, I never liked him – he was always too wimpy for my tastes. You gotta be tough to handle a lady like Alexis Castle!)**

Castle sat down heavily on the sofa, a glass of scotch in his hand. Beckett slipped in next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Now it's my turn to ask if you're okay." She said ruefully.

He chuckled. "I don't know." He admitted. "Sophia threw me for a loop a couple of times during that mission, but… I always assumed she was lying, trying to hurt me."

Neither of them needed to say that the truth could hurt even more.

"You know what I think?"

Castle looked at her, and Beckett smiled, taking the glass from his hand and setting it on the coffee table so that she could straddle his lap. "I think," She said, "That it doesn't matter. Whether Sophia was right or wrong, whether she knew a little something and was bluffing, or if she was just repeating a rumor… it doesn't matter. What matters is how you feel about it. Are you taking in this girl just because of what Deep Throat told her? Or are you taking her in because it's the right thing to do?"

Castle wrapped his arms around Beckett's waist, making her scoot farther onto his lap. "Now you sound like me," He grinned. "Talking to you."

"Well, maybe I listened to you. Not as much as I should have, but something stuck." Beckett leaned forward, brushing their noses together. "So… no fretting about this, right?"

"Right. We'll focus on getting Viola Baker justice." Castle assured her.

"Can we focus on it a little later?" Beckett asked.

"Um, sure. Why?"

She leaned in even more, putting her mouth right by his ear. "Because I'm not wearing any underwear and I have been waiting all day for you to figure it out."

Castle stood up so fast that he nearly knocked her to the floor – and he would have, if he hadn't also hauled her up into his arms. Beckett laughed the entire way to the bedroom.

::::::::::::::::::::

"So this will be your room." Alexis said, gesturing to the guest room. Eddie looked around, blinking slowly like she was taking pictures with her mind.

"It's…" She shrugged. "It's really… well, nice."

"I'm sure it's a little overwhelming." Alexis said, trying to be sympathetic.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eddie asked.

Alexis froze. "I, uh, I just meant… no, nothing, forget it."

Eddie leveled her gaze at the other girl. "You know, I'm not some delinquent your parents found on the streets."

"Oh, Kate's not my mother."

"Could've fooled me." Eddie grumbled before raising her voice to a normal pitch again. "The point is, yeah, I'm used to twin beds and cramped spaces. Doesn't mean I grew up in a cardboard box. I still remember…" She trailed off.

"You still remember what?" Alexis asked.

Eddie shrugged. That was definitely a habit of hers. "I was five when we started moving around but I still remember what it was like before, when Dad was still alive. Our house wasn't anything to brag about but it was… nice. I had a lot of stuffed animals, like this big pink bunny that was larger than I was. And our kitchen was bigger than the entire apartment I was living in this morning."

Alexis started to say something, but Eddie cut her off. "That was not an invitation for pity. It taught me a lot, and I wouldn't trade it."

Alexis resisted the urge to snort. "And what kind of stuff did it teach you?" She asked, admittedly a little challengingly.

Eddie flung her backpack onto the bed. "Surviving on my own, how to hide, how to run, how to survive when you have nothing, no money to your name, how to observe, how to learn stuff…"

"Did you ever go to school?" Alexis asked.

"And give people a way to trace me? No." Eddie really did snort. Alexis folded her arms and stood firmly. Eddie rolled her eyes. "I was homeschooled. I studied what I wanted to study, and I would write about it or talk about it with my mom."

"Did you actually study anything? Or did you just fool around on the computer all day?" Alexis asked.

Eddie glared at her. "I studied. The past couple of years it's been mostly chess."

"Chess?"

Eddie opened her backpack and pulled out a sweater, a roll of cash, a laptop, and a well worn but carefully boxed up chess set.

"My mom got it at a garage sale. I begged and begged her for it. Cost her twenty bucks, which was two weeks' worth of food to us, but she just said I could think of it as my birthday and Christmas present for the next two years." The blonde girl said.

"Are you any good?" Alexis asked, sitting down on the bed.

"I've never met a person I didn't beat." Eddie shrugged. "When my mom was working days, I'd sneak out of the house and go to this park where these chess buffs would all meet. She didn't know, of course, because I wouldn't be standing here on account of being dead, and I told the others not to ever mention me. I beat 'em all. They didn't mind keeping quiet about me after that, 'cause no fifty-year-old chess master wants to admit he got his ass beat by a teen."

Alexis bit her lip. It was a little funny.

"I also play online, too. They have websites and stuff where you play chess competitively. I'm the Grand Master of every site I'm on."

"So how does one spend two years studying chess?"

Eddie raised her eyebrows. "I'm surprised that someone with your caliber of education doesn't know."

Alexis glared. "My education was more than adequate, thank you." She said.

That led to a stare down that lasted a good two minutes. Eddie was the one who broke it.

"Look, chess can be applied a lot of things in life – relationships, politics, history – and it's fascinating to study those things and find a way to use chess to predict things or see how things are going.

"There was this one guy in the chess group in the park, older, never said his name… he would do the craziest things like sacrifice his queen. No tricks, no hidden motive, he just fed her to the wolves and sat back to watch. I asked him about it and he said that he wanted to see how events played out. He wanted to know, if so-and-so did this or that, what would the outcome be? How would it affect everything else?

"That's how chess is. It's like a way to see the world; a way to look at things. If you look at a situation the way you look at a chessboard, you can figure out where people are, and even realize what would happen if people did certain things, or know the options available even if you don't know which option they'll choose."

The entire time that she spoke, Eddie arranged the pieces on the board. When she'd finished, with both her little speech and setting up the board, she looked up at Alexis.

"You wanna play?"

Alexis scrutinized the other girl for a bit.

"Okay."

::::::::::::::::::::

"No! For fuck's sake, Alexis…"

Eddie moved the piece Alexis had just placed back into its former position.

"What did you do that for?" Alexis demanded. "That's my piece, my decision."

"Yeah, well, it's a bad decision."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're not taking any risks! Look – you could have moved your bishop to take out my rook…"

"…which would have left him wide open to be stolen by my knight…"

"…which would have then allowed your pawn to take my queen!" Eddie pointed. "You have to think several steps ahead of each move, and then several steps ahead of that! If you don't take risks you're never going to win a game."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine." She moved her bishop to capture the rook.

"Of course, now that you've done that, I'm not actually going to move my knight – I'm going to place this pawn here and…" Eddie grinned. "Checkmate!"

Alexis gaped at the board. Sure enough, her king was trapped. "But… but you said…"

"Hey, _you're_ the one who assumed that I would use my knight to take your bishop. And if I were like you, thinking about the instant consequences, then I would have. But chess isn't like that. It's not about what move you make immediately afterwards; it's about the endgame."

Alexis glared at Eddie, who just sat there with a smile that would put the cat that ate the canary to shame.

"Okay." Alexis said, beginning to set up the board again. "You want a war? You got it. Round two."

Eddie rubbed her hands together. "Oh, this'll be _fun_…"

:::::::::::::::::::::

It was only 2:00 pm, but Alexis was exhausted. She wanted to close her eyes and take a nap right there in the office. But napping on the job is a pretty good way to lose your spot as a pre-law assistant, so she stifled her urge to yawn and pressed on, walking quickly down the hall with a pile of folders in her arms.

The need to yawn came again, and this time she couldn't hold it in. Of course, to yawn, she had to close her eyes, which was why she didn't see the person also hurrying down the hall towards her, and they bumped into each other hard enough to send Alexis crashing to the floor.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

Alexis had always maintained that 'meet cutes' do not happen. They do not exist. They are nothing but a fabrication cooked up by romantic comedy writers to give the audience a sense of fate and destiny. They are meant to up the adorableness factor, nothing more.

And yet now, staring up at the guy she'd just knocked heads with, Alexis was thinking she might have to revise that statement.

The boy staring down at her in concern was nothing short of yummy. He was built, although not like a bodybuilder or anything spectacular but still… definitely well built. He had brown hair that was on the dark side and despite being short it managed to stick up every which way and looked completely unmanageable. He had the warmest, most soulful brown eyes that Alexis had ever been fortunate enough to see, and he had a slow, easy little smile that made his eyes light up.

"You okay?" He repeated, holding out a hand to help her up.

"Yeah." Alexis allowed him to help her to her feet. "Yeah, uh, I'm, uh, fine. Yup. Totally okay. You?"

"I'm good, thanks." He replied. "You must be one of the new assistants."

"Yes. I'm Alexis." She stuck out her hand.

"Oliver." He had a good, firm handshake. Alexis had once listened to a thirty-minute lecture from her dad about the importance of a guy's handshake. "I started as an assistant in March."

"Is it a part of your degree?" Alexis asked.

"No, actually. My dad insisted I get a good job and he has connections, so…" Oliver shrugged.

"Yeah, my dad girlfriend helped me to get this. Her mom was a lawyer." Alexis smiled.

"Nice." Oliver's smile grew. "Hey, uh… have you had your lunch break yet?"

:::::::::::::::::

"And then what happened?"

Eddie was perched on Alexis' bed, practically bouncing with every question she asked. The girl was still annoying the hell out of the youngest Castle but things had gotten better after staying up all night playing chess.

"We had lunch." Alexis shrugged. She was sitting at her desk, looking at various papers. "Should I visit The Brewery or Syren next?"

"What are you talking about? And where did you have lunch? What did he say?" Eddie asked.

"I visit hole-in-the-wall restaurants and review them. I have a whole blog about it." Alexis explained. "And we got sandwiches from a food cart."

"That brings the total to… what, ten blogs? And what did he say?"

"Twelve. You forgot the ones about interior design and urban art. And I don't remember – we discussed work, and my volunteer jobs and stuff."

"You mentioned the wildlife rescue center, right? Guys love pythons and stuff like that. And by urban art, I'm assuming you mean graffiti with flair. What did he look like? What was he wearing?"

Alexis sighed. "Eddie, I am trying to design a website for a client here."

"And I'm trying to get information." Eddie replied. "You know, it's thanks to me that you met him. If I hadn't kept you up all night playing chess, you wouldn't have been tired, and if you weren't tired, you wouldn't have yawned, and if you hadn't yawned, you wouldn't have run into him and you wouldn't have gone to lunch with him, and you wouldn't marry him and have his babies and make me the Maid of Honor at your humongous overdone wedding."

Alexis gave her a look. Eddie just flopped back onto the bed, glaring at the pink walls. "You have got to repaint your room. Seriously. I want to vomit."

Alexis ignored her in favor of scribbling something on one of the pieces of paper.

"So did he ask you out?"

Alexis sighed and looked over at Eddie. "What if he did?"

Eddie jumped up. "Did he?" She asked.

"No." Alexis said. "And I wouldn't accept even if he did."

Eddie rolled her eyes. "And why not? You said he's hot, and he bought you a sandwich."

"It's a long story." Alexis said warily.

Eddie stared at her, waiting expectantly. Alexis groaned. "You're going to be annoying until I tell you, aren't you?"

"Let me think… first girl my age I've talked to in, like, ever?" Eddie pretended to ponder that for a moment. "Yeah. I think I'm going to annoy you until I get every juicy piece of info."

Alexis rolled her eyes and quickly told her about Ashley, and the disappointing boys she'd met since then. Eddie made a face when she was finished.

"Ashley? His name was _Ashley_ and you went out with him? What is wrong with you?"

"And you say this because you have so much experience with guys."

"No, I say it because Ashley is a girl's name, except for in _Gone With the Wind_, and that boy Ashley was a wimp, too. It's a guarantee."

"So you think I should, I don't know… go after him?"

Eddie shrugged. "Like you pointed out, I have zero guy experience. None. Zip. Zilch. So I don't know. But it can't hurt to have lunch with him a couple more times. I mean, at the least you get a friend, right? And in the meantime you can decide if you want to take things further or not. See if he's a real… oh, I don't know… man? If that makes any sense?"

"It makes no sense." Alexis assured her.

"What I'm saying is that you're tough. Yeah, you sleep in a pink room, and yes, your private school attitude and overdrive work ethic annoy the hell out of me but seriously, you've got a backbone. And you're not half bad at chess. So you need a tough guy, a guy who knows how to handle himself. Someone who's smart, and capable, and not some nerd who spends all of his time studying bloody economics. Who like economics, anyway?"

"I like economics."

"Yes, well, we've already established that you are a freak of nature." Eddie waved that off.

"Says the girl who spent two years studying a board game and has herself admitted she has had no peer interaction." Alexis shot back.

Eddie made a face. "You speak way too proper for someone your age."

"Properly." Alexis said automatically.

"See? See? The point is, you need someone who can handle you. And so you need to see if this Oliver can do that. By going out to lunch with him. As coworkers."

Alexis arched her eyebrows. Eddie shrugged and gave her a shit-eating grin. "And hey, if it doesn't work out, you can always introduce him to your genius blonde semi-roommate."

"Sure, because I want to torture the guy." Alexis rolled her eyes and went back to her papers.

"Just tell me one thing." Eddie said. "Did seeing him give you butterflies?"

Alexis pictured Oliver's face and a tiny thrill went through her.

"Maybe." She said.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

"Hey, guys!" Ryan happily burst into the precinct. "Guess what?"

Becket, who was staring at Viola Baker's murder board, only said dryly, "You found the murder?"

Castle and Esposito were a lot more animated with their guesses.

"You won the lottery."

"You have a long-lost twin."

"You found a new hot-dog stand we can go to?"

"You found proof of aliens!"

"Aliens? Again, Castle, really?" Beckett said, giving him her incredulously amused smile.

"Hey, we never found any evidence against aliens." Castle reminded her.

"But we never found any evidence supporting them, either." Beckett said.

"Maybe if you'd tell me what that mysterious FBI or whatever guy told you…"

"Um, guys?"

Everyone turned back to Ryan. He took a deep breath, and then grinned a little nervously.

"Jenny's pregnant."

"Oh, wow, Ryan, congratulations!" Beckett said, smiling. "That's fantastic!"

"Yeah, man, now there will be two of you. I'm scared." Espo clapped him on the back, grinning.

"You are about to become very, very lucky." Castle assured the junior detective. He opened his mouth to deliver a long speech about the joys of fatherhood, but caught Beckett's eye and shut his mouth. "It's going to be fun." He assured the slightly overwhelmed looking Ryan.

Beckett looked at Castle's face as he congratulated his friend, and she could easily imagine what he must have looked like when he'd found out about Alexis. She had never really thought about children before – she had, but always as a someday sort of thing. It would happen, just… later; sometime, at some point in the future.

But now she was wondering, if she and Castle were to have kids…

She mentally shook herself and went back to Viola Baker's murder board.

:::::::::::::::::::

Eddie examined the chessboard carefully. She looked at the files spread over the bed in the guest room. The packet of files was the one other thing she'd taken from the apartment upon leaving. Like the burner phone, still nestled safely in her pocket, she had found it in her mother's underwear drawer.

Somehow, the notes and receipts and lists in this packet connected these people. Her mother the former campaign managing assistant, the mystery author, and the detective. Three people who would otherwise never cross paths and had nothing to do with each other were somehow all connected because of these files.

But how? And why?

Eddie stared at the chessboard, and picked up one of the files. There was a pattern here – there was always a pattern; always a sequence of moves, like an invisible trail, to be followed. There was a linchpin, a spider's web of connections, and they were all there, just waiting to be found. All she had to do was find the pieces and trace it the game back to the starting point, and she would find the connection.

Eddie began to rearrange the chessboard.

**Picture your favorite actor with brown hair and brown eyes. There you go – Oliver! Ta-da! Ain't imagination great? Now we don't have to fight over which actor would be perfect for the role, because frankly, my fist is still recovering from the last person I hit. Never punch someone with a closed fist, people. Although it is rather hilarious…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, that's it; time for some pillow talk. And sex. We've gone way too long without a smut chapter.**

It was so late that it was early, the darkness serene and all encompassing. Beckett lay on her stomach, letting Castle write words on her back as she tried to guess them.

"R plus K forever." She said. "I swear, you are such a teenage girl sometimes."

"How'd you guess?" Castle sounded almost offended.

Beckett muffled her smile in the pillow. "The heart and the plus sign kind of gave it away." She admitted.

"Spoilsport." He said good-naturedly, flopping down onto the bed next to her.

Beckett scrunched her face up. They'd been together for about three weeks now, and she felt like she couldn't put it off any longer. There were things to say, things that _had_ to be said, things that she owed it to him to tell.

"Rick?" She said tentatively.

"Mmm?" Castle replied. He tilted his head so that he could see her face. "What is it?" He asked.

Beckett rolled over so that she was looking up at his face – his open, generous, loving face, the one she loved beyond what was healthy.

"You know how… what I said when I came to you that night?" She asked.

Castle cast back to that stormy night, when a dripping wet Kate Beckett had shown up at his door and practically thrown herself on him.

"You said that… that Maddox got away. You said that he got away and you didn't care. You said…" Castle swallowed and closed his eyes, as if trying to banish the images in his head. "You said that you almost died."

Beckett nodded. "I did." She took a deep breath. "Esposito and I went against orders, which was why we were suspended. We went after Maddox. I fought him, but… oh _God_ Castle, it was like I was a rag doll. I've gone against lots of people before, in training and in real life, but he just tossed me around like it was nothing. He threw me off the roof and left me hanging there for dear life."

Castle's jaw clenched violently, his deep blue eyes snapping and crackling, like sparks flying off steel.

"I just… hung there, and I thought of you. I wanted to see you, and apologize, and just… be with you. Castle, I wanted you. I even thought I heard you calling out to me. I cried out your name, thinking you were there because you've always been there, always. But then the person hauled me up and it was just Ryan. It wasn't you. And then it hit me that you were really gone, that you weren't there for me and it was all my fault, because I pushed you away and I hurt you and I…" Beckett's voice abandoned her.

Castle reached down and ran the back of his hand along her cheek. His eyes had softened but his face was still hard lines and chiseled stone. It hit him just how close he had been to losing her, no second chances, no do-over. Gone. He wanted to strangle Maddox with his bare hands.

"Well, I didn't really help with the flight attendants and stuff." He admitted. He'd been hurting, but that didn't excuse the fact that he'd been a bit of a cad.

"You remember a couple years ago, when you invited me to spend the summer with you in the Hamptons?" Beckett asked.

"Yeah…" Castle said slowly, unsure of where this was going. "You said no and I ended up going with Gina."

Beckett gave a single laugh that sounded a little too close to a sob for Castle's liking. "Right before she walked up I was going to tell you – I'd broken up with Demming. I was going to say yes to you, Castle. I was going to give us a chance…"

He stared at her. "You…" He cleared his throat. "Damn it."

"What?"

Castle sighed. "Getting back with Gina was nice the first week or so, but the entire time we were in the Hamptons I kept thinking of what it would be like if it were you. And after the first week or so… it was far from nice. I was just going through the motions, and I think she knew it."

His hand was still resting on her cheek, so Beckett drew her hand up his arm to his shoulder, reveling in the simple feel of warm skin connecting.

"I'm sorry." Beckett whispered. "I'm so sorry for everything, Castle, I put you through so much…"

"Hey, it's okay." He assured her. "If we'd gotten together back then we might not have been ready for it. What we've got now is good. I like what we have now."

Beckett smiled, slow and sure, the warm closed-lip smile that Castle had worked his ass off to produce. Every time she bestowed one of those on him, he felt like he'd won the lottery several times over.

Slowly, deliberately, Beckett slid her other arm up so that she had both of them wrapped around his shoulders. She pulled him down to her, tilting her head up to meet him in the middle. She was still smiling as she kissed him.

Many couples like to say that they have a song that describes their relationship and their feelings for each other – it is known as 'our song' or 'their song'. Said song is often viciously turned off when it comes on the radio after the couple has broken up, but until then it is a reminder of their passion and partnership.

Castle and Beckett did not have a song.

They were a song.

It began with a thrumming, like someone slowly plucking the strings of a base guitar, deep and resonant and vibrating through their bodies long after the sound of the note died away. It hummed in their ears, a silent melody that they could somehow feel if not hear, as they began to join together.

Castle took his time exploring her mouth, carefully cataloguing every inch of her orifice as if he had never done it before. Beckett hummed deep in her throat, the vibrations passing from her lips to his, their breath the beat of the song. His hands slid slowly down her body, skimming across her sides and ass, while hers stayed up top, burying themselves into his hair and massaging the back of his neck.

The rhythm picked up a little as their kissing grew in intensity, hums mutating into moans and breaths morphing into pants. It was all about the slide of their bodies together, hands on skin, hands in hair, hands linking together, fingers interlocking to twine and twist above their heads. The guitar notes were building, two or three notes resounding at once, lighter and higher pitches mingling with the deep and the slow. But it was never frenzied. It was not that kind of night.

Beckett's breath and the tune hitched as Castle slid into her, but everything picked up again. It was intense and deep, the notes echoing in their chests despite the slow rhythm they kept up. In and out, sliding together, the notes mingling and mixing and moving them even as their bodies did the same.

Without changing the rhythm or mixing up the tune, the music somehow drove them higher, the simple tones stirring them until it was like they themselves were fine instruments, and they themselves were creating the melody being played. It was as tight as finely tuned strings, their bodies taught, sliding and moving and carrying the tune with every sway of their hips.

And then the song ended on a final, low note, the vibrations humming through them, and they broke apart. They cracked like eggshells, pleasure spilling out in a white-gold flood that coated their systems, overloading everything and leaving them drowning and breathless in the remains of the song that they'd created, the lingering orgasm a soundless ovation.

They finally rebooted, lips and limbs loosened and limp, a few minutes later. Their ears rang like they'd been deafened by thunderous applause.

Beckett's smile was tinged with post-climax euphoria this time, but Castle knew it was genuine, so he wasn't worried. He grinned back, lazy and a little goofy. She was so beautiful, her skin shining and golden like oiled woodwork, smooth and carved by the hand of the Master.

"I love you." He murmured.

Beckett crawled slash flopped over so that she was completely cuddled up against him. It was breaking her number one post-sex rule (No Cuddling Whatsoever) but Castle had made her break pretty much every other rule in her life at one time or another, and she was more than happy to break this one for him.

This put her so that her face was directly in front of his. "I love you, too." She assured him, before cocking her head to the side and promptly falling asleep.

Castle stroked her hair. He hadn't asked for an explanation about that night, and he'd never expected that confession about the Hamptons, but he was glad that she'd told him. He decided that he was a thoroughly lucky bastard before following his muse into sleep.

**Phew! I think that's enough hurt and comfort for now, yes? Indeed… I think it's time we cranked the dial up to 'angst'… mwahahaha…**


	6. Chapter 6

**For those of you who can't peer into my subconscious or automatically know exactly what I'm thinking, this is where I fret and wring my hands and hope that you guys like the plot twist!**

"Hey, Eddie?" Alexis called, making her way up the stairs. "Remember how I said that I wouldn't say yes if Oliver asked me out on a date?"

Their current houseguest didn't answer. She was too busy examining two of the files; her eyes flicking back and forth like a pinball in an arcade machine. The connection was there, floating in her mind… if she just relaxed, it would come to her…

She looked down at the chessboard, forcing her breathing to remain steady. The thought was coming… the threads were all connected, they all crisscrossed at some juncture, she just had to wait…

"Well, I'm going to have to take back that statement because we had lunch again today and – what the hell is that?" Alexis opened the door to the guest room, froze, and interrupted herself to ejaculate accusingly and point at the papers spread all over the bed.

Eddie froze as well. "Um…"

Alexis strode over and picked one of them up. "Are you investigating someone?"

"Kind of." Eddie said carefully.

Alexis examined the paper she'd picked up. "This is somebody's bank receipt." She said slowly. "Does this have to do with your Mom's murder?"

Eddie said nothing.

Alexis picked up another paper from the bed. This one was actually an 8 x 11 photograph of a dead woman lying in an alley, her dark brunette hair rather similar to someone else's that Alexis knew. She flipped the photo, waving it at Eddie accusingly.

"This is Beckett's mom. I've seen pictures from when she and my dad were investigating." Alexis gestured at all of the stuff on the bed. "What is this?" She demanded.

Eddie took a deep breath. She had no choice but to tell Alexis everything now – the girl wouldn't believe whatever lie Eddie cooked up. She had to take the risk of taking Alexis into her confidence and ask her not to tell.

"You have to promise not to tell your dad, or Kate."

Alexis frowned. "I don't have any secrets from my dad." She said slowly.

"So he knows you sneak out at night to meet graffiti artists and interview homeless people?" Eddie asked.

Alexis gave her a look that clearly stated Eddie was not in any position to be high and mighty. Eddie sighed.

"Look, I made a promise not to tell anyone, especially not Castle or Beckett. It will put them in extreme danger. I don't know why, so please don't ask, but it will."

"Who told you this?" Alexis asked.

Eddie shrugged. "You're going to want to sit down."

Alexis sat. "Okay. Talk."

Eddie told her about the burner phone, and her mother's murder, and the conversation with the mysterious man. Only this time when she told the story, she didn't leave anything out.

"He said that my Mom had evidence against someone – again, I don't know who – that would connect this person to a lot of crimes. That person killed my dad and my mom, and if he knew I had the packet he'd come for me, too."

"This is evidence against this guy?" Alexis said.

"Yes."

"Well, what did he do?"

"He killed Beckett's mom, for one thing. He's got several counts of fraud and stuff, too. From what I can tell it all started way back with this extorting from mobsters thing these three cops had going."

Alexis frowned. "But how does your mom connect to all of this?"

"See, here's the thing – I don't know. The only thing that I can figure is that she somehow gathered this information. Either my dad knew something and his death tipped her off, or he assembled this packet and she found it when he died." Eddie shrugged. "And I don't know how your dad fits into it, either."

"Maybe he's just connected because he's with Beckett?" Alexis suggested.

Eddie shook her head. "No. There's another connection there. I think it's between him and my mom."

"Well, he did say he knew her."

"See, but he didn't. He only took me in because I told him this phrase that the guy on the phone gave me."

"What was it?"

"Sophia didn't lie about everything."

The girls looked at each other, all potential hostility forgotten as they began to brainstorm.

"Any idea who Sophia is?" Alexis asked.

"Not a clue." Eddie said.

Alexis thought for a moment. "Wait – stay right there." She jumped up from the bed and tore out of the room, thumping down the stairs. She returned a moment later with a book clutched in her hands. It was a Derrick Storm novel of her father's.

"Look at this." Alexis flipped to the back of the book and showed Eddie the acknowledgements.

"Nobody reads those." Eddie protested.

"I do." Alexis said idly.

Eddie mumbled something about 'freak', but followed Alexis' finger. The girl was pointing at a particular sentence, hidden amongst the other expressions of gratefulness.

_To Sophia – Clara Storm is but a mere shadow of her…_

That was it. The sentence went on, praising various others but that was all that was said about this Sophia woman. But it was enough.

"Clara Storm is Derrick's love interest and eventual wife in the series." Alexis explained.

"You sound like a Wikipedia article." Eddie commented.

Alexis ignored her. "The point I'm trying to make is that maybe Clara was based on a real person, named Sophia, just like Nikki Heat is based on Kate."

"Does Kate know? 'Cause I doubt she'd like it." Eddie mused.

Alexis waved it off. "Oh, I doubt my dad had a relationship or anything with this Sophia. Clara's a CIA agent, and he mentioned consulting with them once or twice for research but…" Alexis trailed off.

The girls stared at each other.

"He consulted for the CIA?" Eddie repeated.

"Once or twice was what he said; it was for research on Derrick Storm novels. He only said it way later and he couldn't talk about it. That's all I know." Alexis said.

Eddie sat up straighter on the bed. "But what if this Sophia was a CIA agent? What if she told him a bunch of stuff that turned out to be lies?"

Alexis thought a moment. "And it could be that there was one she swore wasn't a lie, or that he doubted was a lie or something, and this man somehow knew about that…"

Eddie grinned. "Of course, there's only one way this man could know what Sophia said."

Alexis raised her eyebrows.

Eddie's grin widened. "He must be CIA, too."

::::::::::::::::::::

"He's not going to see us." Eddie insisted.

"Trust me." Alexis said. "I can get us in." She marched up to the secretary. "Hello; we're here to see Mr. Colban?"

"I'm sorry – who are you?" The woman asked, raising her eyebrows skeptically.

"We're journalists for the magazine Rock the Vote – it's a new political magazine for teenagers and young adults, to help get them interested in their government." Alexis explained smoothly. "We're here to interview him? It was a spur-of-the-moment thing he agreed to; he spoke with my boss at the rally last night. Don't worry, it's a short interview, we'll only be fifteen minutes or so."

The woman stared at them like she was trying to see if they were counterfeit bills. Alexis stood there quietly and confidently. Eddie wasn't so confident, but she'd been trained to bluff and bluster her way through any situation (of course, the situations she'd been prepped on had been cops, mysterious men, and the like).

"All right." The woman said. "I'll buzz you in."

"Thank you!" Alexis said, giving her a dazzling smile. Eddie smiled awkwardly and hurried after the redhead.

The man behind the desk stood up as the girls entered. Roger Colban had been Senator Rickman's campaign manager since the beginning – which was why the girls were there.

"What can I do for you ladies?" He asked.

"We just wanted to ask you a few questions regarding one of your late employees – a Mr. Joshua Baker?" Alexis said. She and Eddie sat down in the two chairs provided, and Mr. Colban retook his seat.

"I'm afraid you might have to be more specific. I've had a number of employees over the years." Mr. Colban said. "No offense, but are you girls cops? You look a little young."

"We're medical students." Alexis said. She remained calm. "We were put to studying past allergy deaths and came across Mr. Baker's file. We had a point of contention over something and just wanted to settle our dispute."

"Okay…" Mr. Colban said slowly. "I think I know who you're talking about now. It was a peanut allergy he had, wasn't it? Tragic death, that. He died right after a fundraiser we had."

"Yes." Alexis nodded. "Mr. Colban, did Mr. Baker exhibit any unusual behavior prior to his death?"

"He was always a quiet one." Mr. Colban replied. "But come to think of it, yes, he was. Always quiet and calm, he was, but then he started getting agitated. He received phone calls that he was always running off to answer in private. It was quite strange." The man laughed. "You know, at the time, I thought maybe he was having an affair and doing a bad job of handling it."

Eddie gripped the arms of her chair. "He wasn't having an affair." She snapped.

Alexis spoke quickly so that Mr. Colban wouldn't have time to process Eddie's outburst. "That's very helpful, thank you. And when was the last time that you saw Mr. Baker alive on that, uh, fateful night?"

Eddie swiveled her head slowly to look at Alexis. _Fateful night? Really?_ Her expression screamed.

The manager thought for a moment. "It was actually about twenty minutes or so before he was found. I remember because my watch was being iffy – something about the battery connection – and I stood in front of a clock on the wall to reset it and try to get it working again. He said that he was going to have to turn in his resignation. I told him that we'd talk about it in the morning, but right now was a bad time. He said sorry, and that he'd come see me tomorrow morning. Then they found the poor bastard dead not long after."

"And did you see him eat anything that contained peanuts? Was there any food lying about his person when he was found, or any found in his mouth?"

Mr. Colban frowned. "Wouldn't that be in his medical file?"

"Of course." Alexis said soothingly. "But we want to double-check facts."

"Of course, of course. You must be thorough and all that." He nodded sagely.

Alexis nodded, noting Eddie's stiff posture and her attempt to snap her chair arms in half. "Thank you so much. That clears up quite a lot for us." She stood up, and Eddie mimicked her. "Have a good day, sir."

"Yeah, uh, have a nice day." Eddie said hurriedly.

"You too, girls. Glad that I could help." Mr. Colban said absently, his mind already on other things.

The girls hurried past the glaring secretary and out of the building onto the street.

"So?" Alexis said, turning to the blonde. "Did that help you at all?"

"I think so." Eddie said. "But I'll have to recheck that file on Captain Montgomery." She pulled out the files and peeked in. "I can't do this here – I need my chessboard."

"Great. Let's go." Alexis turned to head back home. She felt Eddie turn beside her, hitching up her backpack.

There was a tiny thumping sound, and Eddie wheezed out all of her breath slowly. Alexis turned.

Eddie's eyes were wide as she slowly sank down onto the concrete. Her backpack had a slightly singed hole in it, and Eddie's right shoulder was red. All of it. Red. And bright. And soaking her shirt…

Alexis couldn't help it. She screamed.

Eddie sank to her knees. "They found… me…" She whispered.

Alexis dropped to a crouch, pressing her hand to the wound, or where she thought the wound was. Eddie hissed in pain.

"Sorry, sorry!" Alexis apologized. "We have to get you to a hospital… oh God…" She tore into her purse and dug out her phone. Dialing took a second because her hands were shaking so badly.

"Hello, this is a 9-1-1 Operator. What is your emergency?"

"My friend has been shot!" Alexis said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Shouting would not help the situation. "You have to get an ambulance here, she's been shot in the shoulder."

"Okay, miss, give us your location and we'll send someone."

Alexis looked up at the street signs. "I'm at the corner of 4th and Century."

"Okay. I'm sending a dispatch over to you now. Can you tell me your friend's condition?"

"Condition?" Alexis looked Eddie up and down. The girl was unnaturally pale, her eyes fluttering. "She's, um, shot of course, and it looks like she's losing consciousness…"

"Where was she shot?"

"In the shoulder."

"From the back or the front?"

"The back. I think it tore through her backpack and that's why she's not dead – she was turning and putting it on when she was shot."

"Okay. I want you to take off her backpack and see if you can find the wound. If you can, apply pressure to stop the bleeding."

Alexis carefully slipped Eddie's backpack off. The girl was barely conscious but reached weakly for it, trying to hold it close. Alexis knew that this backpack was the girl's whole world. More than that, it had the all-important files in it. Alexis slung the backpack onto her own back so that no one could steal it while she attended to Eddie. Now that the bag was off, Alexis could see where the bullet had embedded itself just below Eddie's right shoulder blade, possibly nicking the bone. When Alexis pressed her hand there to stem the flow of blood, her hand became instantly coated in the sticky substance.

"Now what?" Alexis asked.

The sound of sirens was heard in the distance.

"I think the ambulance is here!" Alexis' voice was filled with relief. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." The operator said kindly.

Alexis hung up and kept her hand pressed to the wound. "Just hold on, Eddie." She whispered. "They'll be here in a minute."

The ambulance pulled up and the EMTs ran out. People on the street, who hadn't bothered to notice one young girl kneeling on the sidewalk, definitely took notice of the scene now. The doctors carefully lifted Eddie onto a stretcher and loaded her onto the emergency vehicle. Alexis climbed in as well and sat, holding Eddie's limp hand, as they patched up her wound and staunched the bleeding on the drive back.

Once they reached the hospital, Alexis was relegated to the waiting room while Eddie was prepped for surgery. She sat down on a nearby chair and called her dad.

Castle was theorizing with Beckett about Viola Baker when his phone rang. He picked it up, mouthing "Alexis" to Beckett, who nodded and took a step to the side.

"Hey, pumpkin, what–" Castle stopped. "What? When? Is she okay?" He listened for a second. "Which hospital?" He nodded. "Okay. We'll head over there right now." He ended the call and turned to a concerned Beckett.

"Eddie was shot, possibly by a sniper. She's being prepped for surgery now. It all happened right in front of Alexis."

Beckett's heart did a stutter, then somersaulted once before resuming at a faster pace than before. "C'mon." She said. "I'll put on the sirens."

They made it to the Providence of St. Mary Hospital in five minutes, walking as quickly as they could without breaking into a run. Alexis jumped up when she saw them, streaking over to Castle and hugging him fiercely, finally giving in to tears.

"Shh, it's okay, pumpkin." He assured her. "It's going to be okay."

"She was hit in the shoulder, but I think the person was aiming for her heart." Alexis sniffled. "She turned and put on her backpack at the same moment so she was lucky… but she lost a lot of blood and they said the bullet might have pierced her lung…" She continued to cry.

"All right, sweetie. Let's sit down." Castle gently led Alexis back to the row of chairs, sitting down next to her and hugging her. Alexis nestled her head onto his shoulder. "I'm going to check with the doctor since I'm her temporary guardian, okay? I'll be right back."

Alexis nodded, sniffling, and let him go. She hadn't felt this helpless, or felt such a need for comfort, in years. Not since the last time she'd made the mistake of believing that her mother really cared about her.

Beckett sat down Alexis' opposite side, sighing. She had no idea what to say.

Automatically, without even thinking, Alexis leaned so that her head was now on Beckett's shoulder. Beckett was startled but responded by taking one of Alexis' hands in her own, and reaching around with her other hand to stroke the girl's hair. Alexis let the tears quietly run down her face, making no sound.

Castle strode back, sitting on Alexis' other side. "The doctor said that Eddie's in surgery now. Normally they'd ask for permission but they couldn't wait so they just went ahead with it. The bullet nicked her right shoulder blade and they just confirmed that it _did_ pierce her lung. They got to her in time to save it but they don't know how long she'll have to need a machine to help breathe."

"Oh God." Beckett whispered before she could stop herself. She placed her hand on Alexis' shoulder, hugging the girl closer. Alexis gave an involuntary whimper at the news.

Castle nodded, distraught. "They also said–"

"Mr. Castle?" The doctor he'd spoken to a minute ago, Dr. Bunsen, was back. "We wanted to let you know that the surgery was successful. The bullet has been successfully removed, and we've hooked her up to a breathing apparatus to help her lungs. We patched up the affected organs, but it will take about a month for the hole to be completely covered and the lung to work on its own. Of course, it might be sooner, depending on how quickly her body heals. But she's young – she might be out of here quickly."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's just one thing." Dr. Bunsen went on. "She did lose a lot of blood – almost a liter. We gave her some blood but she's got O negative blood, which means that she can only receive O negative blood. I hate to say it but we used up our last stores of it in a building collapse two days ago and until we get another delivery from the blood bank we won't have any more."

"Will she be okay until then?" Beckett asked.

The doctor shook her head. "She needs a transfusion _now_, or she's not going to pull through."

"I'm O negative." Castle said quickly. "Will you be able to get enough from me?"

Dr. Bunsen looked him up and down. "We should be able to get enough for her to survive until the next delivery, which is tomorrow. She just needs to survive the night. If you'll come with me, we can get you tested to double-check and then get the blood."

Castle nodded. He looked down at his daughter and partner. "If you two want to go home…"

Both women shook their heads. "We're staying here." Alexis said firmly.

Beckett reached out and grabbed Castle's hand, squeezing it. "We'll see you when you get out."

"Geez, you'd think I'd never given blood before. I was a starving college student once, you know." Castle joked as he followed Dr. Bunsen down the hall.

Beckett couldn't help but smile at him.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Castle returned about twenty minutes later. Roughly fifteen minutes after that, Dr. Bunsen returned. "She's responding. You should be able to look in on her once she's awake. I must say, Mr. Castle, if you'd informed me that you two were related I wouldn't have had to perform so many tests."

All three people stared at her. "What?" Beckett sputtered.

"We're not related." Castle said quickly.

Alexis' eyes widened.

"But you're such a close match you'd have to be. Not her father or mother but at least an uncle or cousin." Dr. Benson held out her clipboard. "See?" She indicated various factors and explained them, but Castle wasn't listening. He looked over at Beckett.

"Every piece…" Alexis whispered, remembering something that Eddie had said. In chess, every piece on the board is connected somehow. Even if it takes a bit to realize it, or if the connection is through other pieces, it's still there. Eddie had been stumped as to how Castle and her mother were connected.

Now they knew.

"How is this even possible?" Beckett asked.

Castle's writer brain could only think up one solution, one that would work in any novel of any quality.

Viola had no father that anyone knew of. The identity of Castle's father was shrouded in mystery, unknown even to his own mother. _Sophia didn't lie about everything…_

_Sophia didn't lie…_

"My father. Viola Baker and I must have the same father."

**Confession time – plot is not my strong point. Character relationships and development are. I love exploring characters and really, plot isn't something that I delve into as easily. So if you liked this chapter… let me know!**

**Oh, and as I've never been to NYC, I don't know any hospitals there. I named the hospital after where one of my sisters was born. Now quickly – what famous character was I referencing when I created Dr. Bunsen?**

**Also, final author note, I swear… O negative is the second most common blood type, after O positive, but since people with O negative blood can only receive O negative blood, it is in constant demand in hospitals and the lack of it in blood banks has actually caused several deaths. So I don't know you, and this is crazy, but life's important, so donate maybe?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Whew! Hope you all survived that and didn't feel like you were on a soap opera. Those shows always seem to use the 'holy crap I have a sibling' plotline… of course, what with all the sex going on in those things, it's not unlikely.**

**AND DID YOU SEE CASTLE TALK ABOUT "CASKETT" ON "MURDER, HE WROTE"!? I LOVE THIS SHOW MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF!**

"What does this mean?" Beckett asked.

Alexis had gone to get something to eat from the cafeteria at the insistence of her father. Eddie still wasn't awake yet, but the three of them were still waiting outside of her room.

Castle sighed. "I don't… I don't know. It's crazy, but it's true."

Normally, he'd be cooking up theories, speculating about the voice on the phone, and why Eddie was sent to him, and all the rest but this was too close to home. This was surreal and alarmingly similar to something he himself would write. Well, maybe not the related part, but the CIA connection was definitely in the cards, Hell, he'd written an entire series about an undercover agent!

Beckett leaned against him. "Do you think she knows?"

"Eddie? I don't think so." Castle said.

Beckett remembered something. "Hey, remember when she first came into the precinct,"

"And she had on that disguise? Yeah. That was pretty good." Castle said.

"When she took off her contacts, and she still had the wig on… she looked like you." Beckett said. "She had those big blue eyes and the darker hair… and I thought that she looked like someone, but I didn't know who." She thought for a minute. "Viola actually looks a lot like you, too. You have the same eyes and nose. Her hair is a bit lighter, though."

Castle didn't quite sigh, but his shoulders slumped a little like the air had gone out of him. "I always wanted a sibling, and a father." He confessed. "I always wanted to give Alexis a sibling, too, but that didn't work out. Now… it turns out I had a sister, but it's too late to get to know her. She's gone. And my dad…" He snorted.

"But it's not too late with Eddie." Beckett swiveled a little in her seat. "Rick, I thought it was too late with you. When my dad was an alcoholic, there were times when I thought it was too late to repair his health or our relationship. But I was wrong about both things. My dad's alive and healthy and we're here, in this, together. She's hurting; Castle – I know because I was hurting. I hurt for years. I actually don't think I started to really heal until you came along, because until then I just locked it all away, I didn't face it. But you helped me to do that. Forget you dad, whoever he is. And we can mourn for Viola, but that's beyond our control. There's a girl in there who needs a family, who needs love and to know that it's not the end of the world. You can give her that; I know you can. It's not too late with her."

Castle kissed her, quick and firm. "I really don't know what I did to deserve you." He said, a little wondering.

Beckett smiled, a little embarrassed.

"Hey – uh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Alexis asked, stopping in her tracks.

"Nope!" Beckett said cheerfully. Her eyes widened. "Oh God please tell me that's coffee."

Alexis grinned. "Yup. Fresh batch! I got down just as they were finished brewing it. It's not the best, but it's got caffeine."

They sipped their drinks and ate the coffee cakes that Alexis had brought them. Beckett was just downing the last bits of her coffee when Dr. Benson returned.

"She's awake, and ready to receive visitors." The doctor said with a smile.

Eddie was propped up in the bed, an IV drip and other tubes, including one filled with blood, going into her body. There was a mechanism standing by the bed with several tubes snaking out and under her hospital gown, and when she shifted, one could see the tubes going into the right side of her chest.

"Hey there, freak." She said when she saw Alexis. Her voice was tired but her eyes were bright and alert. Her hair was damp with sweat and pulled back out of her face, which was pale and looking as tired as she sounded. "The docs told me you called 9-1-1, saved my life."

"Well I'd have no one to insult if you weren't around." Alexis said, perching on a chair next to Eddie. She was joking, but her voice was a little too serious. She'd been genuinely scared for the girl, and having Eddie alive and well was great, but seeing all the tubes and machines keeping her body breathing and her blood pumping was almost as frightening as watching her bleed out on the sidewalk.

"Is it true?" Eddie asked. She was looking right at Castle.

"Is what true?" He asked, even though he already suspected what she would say.

"The doc said that I was lucky my uncle shared my blood type, or… well, it was a close call. I lost a lot of blood." Eddie shrugged. "So you're my uncle?"

Castle let out a breath. "Apparently."

Eddie looked over at Alexis, who nodded her head ever so slightly. This had been the connection they were looking for. Alexis could see the thoughts flicking through Eddie's brain as she put the pieces in their proper places, an invisible chessboard in her head.

"I guess this means I could make a case for becoming your permanent guardian." Castle said slowly. "Or even adopting you, if you wanted."

Eddie started to say _why the hell would I want that_ but shut it. It wouldn't be fair to take any residual anger out on Castle. He'd been nothing but kind to her, taking her in on the cryptic words of a stranger. Well, maybe not a stranger, if her just-thought-up theory was correct, but still. She had no right to snap at him.

"Would… would you like that?" She asked.

Castle thought for a moment. "You've been a great girl since I've met you. You're not crazy, or plotting to kill us in our sleep as far as I can tell. But I don't think that we should set anything in stone yet. Let's get you out of this hospital, and get you settled in a school and all, and then we'll talk."

Eddie nodded. It seemed fair.

"You could go to my old school." Alexis suggested.

Eddie's glare was quick and sharp. "No." She said firmly.

That was clearly the end of that.

"So how do you feel?" Beckett asked. When she'd been shot, she hadn't wanted to talk to anyone for days. She'd felt shut in her own little world, questioning all of her motives and life choices. She'd been a coward, and scared, but she'd eventually manned up and made the decision to turn away from her mother's murder and focus on herself.

Of course, she'd then delved right back in nine months later, like an alcoholic that feels they can have a drink after a year of being sober. That had not gone too well.

She wanted to make sure that Eddie was okay emotionally. Being shot, especially by a sniper – a hidden enemy, one that you can't see or even realize is there – made you feel helpless, hunted, like an animal instead of a human. It was degrading and frightening, and Beckett didn't want that for this girl.

Eddie shrugged. "I feel fine, I guess. I mean, it sucks like hell to be hooked up to this stuff, and I'm super tired, but other than that it's all good. I just wish…" She paused. "I'd kind of like to punch that frog-humping sonofabitch."

Alexis burst into laughter at the unusual, colorful curse. Beckett and Castle looked a little shocked that it was coming from this tiny, pale blonde teen, but Castle had to fight hard not to grin.

Eddie looked up at the adults. "It's gotta be the same one who hit my mom, right? He's after me."

"You'll be safe here." Beckett promised her. "And we will figure out who it is and why."

Alexis and Eddie exchanged a look. To tell or not to tell?

Given the recent turn of events, it didn't look like they had a choice.

Eddie took a deep breath. "We don't know the who yet, but I think I know the why. But I'll need my chess set."

:::::::::::::::::::::::

"Okay." Eddie had her chessboard, the pieces all in place, on the end of the bed. Castle, Beckett, and Alexis were all gathered around it, with Alexis moving the pieces as Eddie directed.

"So this is what I know." Eddie said, pointing out different chess pieces. "Alexis got me some stuff about Joanna Beckett's case, and the files my mom had have some stuff, too.

"Now, my dad was on the trail of something – the person behind all of this. He worked in politics, so he must have heard or saw something that made him curious. Those people killed him and made it look like an allergic reaction."

"Even though nobody saw him eating and no food was found in his mouth, esophagus or around his body." Alexis put in.

Eddie gave her a look for interrupting, but continued without comment. "Exactly. I don't know when or how, but my mom found out. Afraid for her life, she ran, leaving New York."

"Until two years ago, when she came back." Alexis said. "We think that the man on the phone told her about what was going on with Kate–"

"When we moved back she said she had something to do, but she didn't know how." Eddie interjected. "She must have wanted to help you."

"So now Maddox is after you," Beckett said to Eddie. "Because you have the file."

"He must've killed the guy I talked to." Castle said. "Montgomery's friend."

"We'll have to try and find out, see if there were any suspicious deaths that might be him." Beckett agreed.

"We now know why the guy I spoke to sent me to you – we're family." Eddie said.

Castle nodded absently but didn't say anything. Why was it that this man, this person that he had never known, was suddenly foisting a niece that he also had not known about onto him? What was this guy's endgame? And why hadn't he even spoken to Castle? According to Sophia he was the one who helped Castle get into the CIA as a consultant, and apparently he'd been trying to help or protect his other child Viola (some success that had been) and now, he was trying to get the whole family together. Yet through all of this, not once had he shown his face or dropped him a line. Nothing.

He wasn't quite sure what to feel about that. Anger? Disappointment? Sadness? Resentment? If Castle were to be entirely honest, he'd say that he was just plain confused. And a bit lost. He felt like he was back in school, watching all of his classmates bring their fathers for career day. He was the only one who'd brought his mother and while he loved her presentation and never regretted that, he did feel the separation. It wasn't like he had chosen to bring his mother instead of his father – it was that he didn't have a father to bring. And that had stung, just a little. He made his living out of creating mysteries, and now out of solving them as well, but the greatest mystery of his life had never shown any sign of being resolved until now. And, now that it just might be put to rest… he didn't even know where to start.

"I think that the chance to keep you girls out of this has passed." Beckett said carefully. "Castle, what do you think?"

Castle snapped out of his reverie. "I agree, but we don't want them taking any risks. Maddox just tried to kill a teenage girl, it's clear that he'll stop at nothing."

"We'll be careful!" Alexis said.

"I am _not_ missing out on this." Eddie insisted.

Beckett and Castle looked at each other.

"So, we're all in on this?" Castle said slowly.

Beckett nodded. The girls grinned.

"This is going to be so much fun…" Eddie said, rubbing her hands together.

"Says the girl who got shot…" Alexis grumbled.

::::::::::::::::::::::

"Finally!" Eddie declared, stepping into the loft. She'd been discharged that afternoon and was given a clean bill of health. "I never want to eat a bite of hospital food again."

"It wasn't so bad." Alexis disagreed.

"You didn't have to eat it for three meals a day." Eddie pointed out. She flopped contentedly onto the couch. "It feels so good to be out!"

"Why don't you go change into some clean clothes?" Castle suggested. Beckett leaned against the wall, folding her arms and smiling as she watched him try and herd the girls around.

"I hate to be the spoilsport, Castle, but we do have to get going." She reminded him.

"Oh! Right." Castle grinned at her. "You two be good and don't burn the house down. We should be back by eleven."

Now that Eddie was out of the hospital, everyone was taking a break. Alexis had gotten the night off from all of her activities and civic duties and was going to have a movie night with Eddie, while Castle and Beckett had a night on the town.

"Have fun!" Alexis said.

Eddie yelled something from upstairs but it sounded like she was halfway through putting a shirt on and so it was too muffled to make out. Castle and Beckett headed out the door, his arm on the small of her back. It was their first real, well, _date_ since they'd gotten back to New York City, and Beckett was a little worried. What if someone they knew saw them? What if they ended up on Page Six the next morning?

But then Castle kissed her just below her ear and murmured about how much he'd been waiting to do this, and Beckett couldn't help but lean into him as they made their way towards the elevator. Screw Page Six. She was going to have a fun night out with her man.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Alexis danced around the kitchen as she prepared the sauce for the dinner, swinging her hips and singing along with gusto to Christina Aguilera's _Candyman_. Upstairs, Eddie was trying to brush the various snarls out of her long blond hair, which had not gotten washed or really cared for the entire time she was in the hospital.

Neither girl heard the front door open.

Alexis twirled the wooden spoon in her hand, opening the fridge and reaching inside. When she straightened up and closed the door, a hand covered her mouth. Alexis tried to scream, wiggling frantically, but she felt a slight prick in her lower back and she was gone.

"Hey, 'Lex?" Eddie called as she came down the stairs. "I was thinking…" She trailed off. The music was still playing but Alexis was nowhere to be found.

Eddie's instincts went onto high alert. She quickly went over to the kitchen, snagging two wicked sharp knives from the holder. She held them in her fists with the point down, ready to attack anyone who came at her, and went into a boxing stance. She slowly walked around the island, her eyes roaming over the apartment, trying to see if anyone was there. She saw nothing, but the alarm bells in her head did not cease.

She nearly tripped over something on the floor. She looked down and nearly fell out of shock. Alexis was lying peacefully on the floor, out cold. Eddie leaned down and felt for the girl's pulse. It was steady. But when she tried to gently shake the redhead awake, Alexis didn't stir.

Eddie stood up again, turning so that she had a foot planted on either side of the unconscious girl's body, straddling her and protecting her from any potential threat. She looked around the apartment again. She still saw nothing.

As she turned her head to the right to look towards the stairs, the person that had attacked Alexis came at her from the left. Eddie turned back but not in time to stop them from grabbing her wrist and twisting it. To her credit, Eddie did not drop the knife she was holding, but rather brought the other one up to stab at the man. It was a man, about five foot eleven, with short dark hair and in his mid thirties. He dodged Eddie's attack and twisted her arm completely behind her back. Eddie kicked back and up, nailing him in the stomach and giving her the chance to twist back around and try stabbing him again. This time she managed to cut his right arm, the one holding onto her. The man gave a surprised grunt of pain. He moved more quickly than Eddie had thought possible, grabbing her other wrist as she moved to stab him again, twisting and turning her so that now, both arms were pinned behind her back. She bucked, unable to kick without losing her balance, and tried to butt him with the back of her head. She didn't even realize that she'd been injected with something until the room tilted slightly and everything – colors, sounds, her sense of touch – became dull and muted. Blackness closed in on her and she collapsed on top of the still unmoving Alexis.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Home invasions were not generally his style. Sniping, using his gun to get in quick and then get out – that was his game. But lately he'd had to get more up-close and personal with his victims. Take Smith, for instance. He'd had to break every single one of the guy's fingers to get the information he needed. Tough old bastard.

Now, he didn't really need to get any information. His mission was simple: Kill. The blonde girl knew too much, and the redhead would serve as a warning for her meddling father and the detective.

Unfortunately for him, when he got into the loft he realized that someone had beaten him to it. The lights were all still on, and there was a kind of sauce currently burning on the stove. Two kitchen knives lay on the floor, one of them covered in blood.

Maddox viciously kicked over a kitchen barstool. Son of a _bitch_…

He searched the entire house to be certain, but his first assumptions had been correct. The girls were gone, and he'd missed them by no more than a few minutes.

Maddox left the same way he'd come in. His employer was not going to like this.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

"We're home!" Castle called, opening the front door. He froze.

Beckett came up behind him to see what he was staring at. When she saw the knocked over stool, the lights all on and the knives on the floor, she was seized with a great, primal fear. She pushed past Castle and ran into the kitchen. Her movement seemed to bring him to life.

"Alexis!" Castle called, dashing up the stairs. "Eddie! Alexis!"

Beckett noticed the remnants of something in a pot on the stove, now burnt beyond all recognition. But it was the red, sticky substance on one of the knives lying on the kitchen floor that made her throat seize up.

Castle ran back downstairs. "They're not here."

Beckett pointed to the knife, words beyond her.

"I'll call." Castle said, pulling out his phone and dialing the police.

There were two times in Beckett's life when she had felt this afraid and this helpless. The first time had been when she was nineteen, and her mother had died. The second time had been a little over a month ago, when she'd been clinging to the edge of a roof by her fingernails, crying out for her partner.

Now, she was nearly trembling with worry. She didn't even realize that she was crying until Castle hung up and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. Beckett gave a strangled half-sob, her throat so tight that each breath was choking her. She felt how stiff and taut Castle's body was, his own fear tangible in the air. They stood there, holding onto each other, until the doorbell rang and the police arrived.

They sat on the couch, Castle refusing to let go of Beckett's hand. She didn't mind – in fact, she settled in so that he could wrap his other hand around her waist, anchoring her. He was always her anchor, and even in his own terrible state of mind he never stopped keeping her grounded.

Beckett was in such a state of shock that she didn't even realize who the investigating officer was until she heard a familiar voice say,

"Kate?"

Beckett looked up and into the face of the man she once thought that she'd marry.

"Will?"

Will Sorenson looked slightly uncomfortable but overall concerned. While he hadn't always been the best boyfriend, he had always wanted what was best for Beckett – even if he didn't always know what that was – and if she was happy, then he was fine.

He smiled gently at her. "Hey. I'm, uh, sorry about this."

Beckett shook her head. "You just do your job." She said. Castle squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back. If Will noticed the movement, he didn't comment on it.

"So, let's get the facts straight. The missing girls are both female and teenagers, right?" Will asked.

"Yes." Castle answered. "Alexis is eighteen, and Eddie will be eighteen at the end of July."

Will nodded. "Can you give me a description?"

"Alexis has red hair, and Eddie has blond hair that's on the long side – you know what, I have a picture." Castle let go of Beckett's hand to pull out his iPhone. He scrolled through and showed Will a picture. It was of Eddie and Alexis, standing in the hospital lobby, grinning fit to burst. It had been taken just that morning.

"Great. I'll take that, if possible." Will said.

"Of course." Castle nodded.

"When was the last time you saw the girls?" Will asked.

"Earlier this evening, around five." Castle said. "We dropped them off from the hospital and went out on a date."

"Hospital? Are either of the girls injured?" Will inquired.

"Oh, God, Castle, Eddie's breathing." Beckett breathed, turning to him. "She can't exert herself too much, they said that she still needs to take it easy…"

"Was she in some kind of accident?" Will asked.

"She was shot, just a couple of weeks ago." Castle explained. "The bullet pierced her lung. The doctors said that she shouldn't do anything that would cause heavy breathing or other lung exertion."

"Do you have any enemies? Anyone who'd want to do you or the girls harm?" Will asked.

Castle and Beckett looked at each other. If it were Maddox, the girls would not be missing – they'd be dead. The thought made a shiver run down Beckett's spine.

"We don't know anyone who would kidnap the girls." Castle said.

Will nodded, closing his notebook. "I'll get everyone I know on this." He said, standing up. "I really am sorry. We'll do everything we can to find them, I promise."

Castle nodded distractedly, and Beckett gave Will a sad smile. "Thank you." She said.

He nodded and headed out with his team.

Once the pictures had been taken, everything documented, and the statements finished with, the apartment was empty once again. Without a word, Castle led Beckett back into the bedroom, where they promptly collapsed onto the bed. Beckett sobbed and sobbed, frightened beyond belief for the girls. She'd known that she'd cared about Alexis – she had always liked the girl, even from the beginning. Eddie had been an enigma at first but she had grown on Beckett, and even if she'd hated the girl her need to protect and give justice would have overrode any personal feelings. But this fear, this bone-deep, gut-trembling phobia that she couldn't control, had taken her completely by surprise. She felt for all the mothers she'd had to interview like she never had before. She remembered them and wondered how long they'd sat, staring out the window or at the phone, hoping for it to ring but dreading that it would.

Those were _her_ girls, damn it. They had better be safe, wherever they were, or she swore to God that she would hunt down those responsible and kill them as painfully as possible. Judging by the fierce way Castle held her and how tightly clenched his jaw was, he was thinking the same thing.

They didn't say anything the entire night, just lying there. Castle finally broke down and cried at one point, and Beckett raised herself up and pressed her lips to his cheek, their tears mingling and covering both their faces. He finally fell asleep sometime in the early morning, and Beckett curled into him, letting him wrap himself around her in his sleep. She stared out into the darkness, helpless against the fear uncurling and winding through her chest.

For the first time in a long time, Beckett prayed.

::::::::::::::::::

"Alexis!"

The redhead mumbled something. Her head hurt, and her limbs felt unnaturally heavy. She wanted the voice to go away and leave her alone.

A finger poked at her ribs. "Alexis! I know you can hear me! Wake up!"

Alexis turned fitfully and cracked an eye open. Eddie's face swam into view. She looked about as bad as Alexis felt.

_What the hell happened?_ Alexis thought, but when she tried to say it, the words came out more like "Wha th' hell hipnd?"

"Yeah, your speech is gonna be weird at first. This stuff makes you really numb and sleepy." Eddie said, shrugging.

Alexis slowly raised herself up onto her elbows, squinting and blinking at the light. She wondered if this was what a hangover felt like.

"Where are we?" She asked, her tongue managing to obey her brain and form the words relatively well.

"In some kind of bedroom. There aren't any windows – that light making your brain hurt is coming from the ceiling. I actually think we're in some kind of industrial building, although why they made it up like a bedroom…" Eddie trailed off. "You're not paying attention to a word I say, are you?" She asked.

Alexis glared groggily at her.

The door to the room opened, and a man stepped in, accompanied by two other men. One of them had a bandage on his upper right arm. Eddie saw it and grinned cockily, guessing where he'd gotten it. The first man to enter the room was clearly the one in charge. He was tall, with darker hair and large, piercing blue eyes. Those eyes matched the ones belonging to Viola Baker, Richard Castle, and Eddie Baker.

"You're awake. Good." The man said.

Alexis blinked, confused. "What?" She asked.

Eddie, however, was more in control of her body by this point, and strode right over to the guy, decking him right in the nose. The two bodyguards made to grab her, but the man waved them off.

"It's fine, it's fine." He assured them.

The two men glared at Eddie but backed off.

"What did–" Alexis cleared her throat. "What did you do that for?" She demanded.

"He's the one who knocked us out." Eddie snapped. "And he's the one who couldn't be fucking _bothered_ to actually make a physical appearance in his family's life. Thank to you, my mom is dead!"

"What?" Alexis repeated. Her brain was definitely not up to speed right now.

Eddie made an exasperated noise. "For all of your trophies, 'Lex, you aren't always that smart."

Alexis glared.

"Lex!" Eddie flung her arms wide. "_He's our grandfather!_"

Alexis stared at the girl, looked over at the man with eyes just like her father – the man who was not denying the accusation – and promptly vomited.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to warn you. That happened to me, too." Eddie said.

Alexis kept retching but managed to glare at her cousin all the same.

**This chapter is dedicated to the extremely helpful fbobs, who not only has given me detailed feedback on each chapter but suggested the 'family crime solving' scene to me. So if you think it's cheesy, blame him.**

**Just kidding. All cheesiness is failure on my part.**

**Oh, and that line about alcoholics? That is actually an honest-to-God paraphrase of a line in a deleted scene from the season four finale "Always". I just couldn't resist.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's where things start to come to a head with the whole dad/grandfather thing. Eddie is definitely not in a happy mood about this… I wonder what Alexis is thinking about all of this, hmm?**

**And I'm sorry, but Beckett's face when Ryan is talking to them on the phone in "Murder, He Wrote"… PRICELESS.**

When Alexis finally regained control of her reflexes and was able to focus, Eddie was shouting furiously at the man who was, apparently, their grandfather. The resemblance wasn't overwhelming, but he had the same eyes, and nose, as her father and Eddie's mother.

Oh, yes, Eddie…

"You do nothing but give my mother cryptic help and hints for years, you never even _bothered_ to contact your son, and now you kidnap us and expect us to thank you? Well you've got another think coming, you fucking arrogant sonofabitch – you can just plop us back on the street, because we don't want your help, we don't need your help, and frankly I don't give a flying rat's ass if you were to go jump off a cliff right now. You stayed out of our lives before, now do it again!"

Their grandfather waited until Eddie paused for breath, and then spoke. "My name is Leon, by the way. I'd much prefer that to Grandpa."

"How about Asshole?" Eddie snarled. Every piece of anger, every bit of resentment and fury directed towards, well, whatever in the universe had caused her mom to die and her to nearly lose a fucking lung, it was all being hurled at this man. He kind of deserved it, but Eddie didn't care about that. She wanted someone to punish, and he was standing right in front of her. It felt like everything she'd been holding in was spilling over, bursting out of her, and she had to let it go or die.

"Because _you_ didn't get to us in time, my mom _died_ – your daughter, dead. Does that mean anything to you? Or do you just not care? You certainly didn't care enough to tell me who you were, just ordering me around like I was some kind of fucking lackey. She fucking bled out on the sidewalk, because she was stupid enough to trust your hints and information. She was trying to do the right thing! She was trying to bring someone to justice! And you practically stood by and watched!"

Leon's hand snaked out so fast neither girl saw it coming until Eddie was reeling backwards, holding her hand to her now bright pink cheek. Her eyes blazed with fury.

"Sorry about that – I had to get you to shut up somehow."

She was going to kill him. She was going to beat every drop of blood out of him, until his face was such a pulp that his own mother wouldn't even recognize him, until…

Alexis stood and crossed over to her cousin, carefully helping her sit back down on one of the twin beds in the room. Eddie kept glaring hatefully at Leon, either ignoring or oblivious to Alexis' attempts to calm her.

"Care to explain your actions?" Alexis said quietly. She was perfectly calm and composed but her eyes were cold.

Leon sighed, and then glanced at Eddie. "I am sorry about all of this. Viola's death grieves me more than you know."

Eddie flipped him off, still holding her cheek. Alexis put her arm around Eddie's shoulders. "Go on." She said.

"I didn't know that your father existed until a few years ago." Leon explained. "One of my agents, came to me and said that there was this guy poking around, trying to become a consultant. Something about research for a book he was writing.

"I checked him out to make sure he was clean, and discovered that he was Martha Rodger's son. I'd had a one-night stand with her after a performance of _Cat On a Hot Tin Roof_. I'd loved her in it, and seen it several times before I got the courage to tell her in person. I couldn't have a civilian relationship, not with how deep in the system I am, but we had a lovely night together."

Alexis tried very, very hard not to picture the scene. Curse the active imagination her father had given her.

"Anyway, upon realizing that this man was her son, I took another look at him. I'm not stupid – part of my job is being able to memorize faces and recognize people even while wearing heavy makeup or using other disguise techniques. I knew he was my son.

"I couldn't say anything, of course, but I told them to let him in. He got paired with a deceased ex-agent named Sophia."

"Ex-agent?" Alexis asked.

"Deceased." Eddie said cuttingly. "Sounds like someone else I know."

"She turned out to be a Russian sleeper spy. She wasn't working for any particular government when she turned on us, but she would have destroyed the United States if Richard and the detective–"

"Her name is Kate." Both girls said fiercely.

"Excuse me." Leon corrected himself. "If Richard and Kate had not interfered, she would have destroyed the United States.

"In any case, I've occasionally helped him if I can. Not much, as I didn't know about him early enough to infiltrate myself into his life, but I have done what I could. Most recently, I've kept a few pictures from making their way to Page Six. That's all of my involvement with Richard."

"So Gram never knew who you were?" Alexis asked.

Leon shook his head. "No."

"What about my mother?" Eddie demanded.

"Your mother I knew about from the beginning." Leon said heavily. "Her mother and I were very much in love. I was in Prague on an assignment when I met her backpacking through Europe. We hit it off, and we had a relationship that lasted all summer. But when I got called back, I had to leave. I faked my death – made it look like I'd been smashed by a car while biking – and she was never the wiser. I made sure that she was all right financially, and I took care of a few things for Viola throughout the years.

"Then the whole thing with Joseph happened. I knew that Rickman was a bad egg, but I didn't think that it would affect Viola's life."

Eddie and Alexis gave no sign that they'd picked up on the name. Senator Rickman; that was the man they were looking for, the one responsible for all of their pain and suffering (not to be dramatic, or anything…). They had to get out. They had to tell Castle and Beckett. But they said nothing, listening politely. Well, Alexis listened politely. Eddie sent daggers into the floor.

"When Joseph was murdered, I knew he must have found something solid. I contacted Viola, telling her I was a friend that Joseph had been in contact with, helping him investigate. I asked what she knew. She said she knew very little, but that she'd found a package of files under their mattress when cleaning that morning. I told her to keep the package safe, and that I would arrange for her to get out of the state. She insisted that she would only cooperate if I did something for her – she knew that they could find her. She had records, they could trace her. But she didn't want them to trace her daughter.

"Eddie was only five at the time, so I was able to erase her. Medical records, everything. It was like she'd never existed. I instructed Viola on what to do to stay off the records, and especially to keep Eddie safe, as that was her number one priority.

"I checked in on them off and on, but two years ago the daughter of one of the senator's victims – your Kate Beckett – started looking into her mother's death with the help of Richard. I called Viola and told her that people were starting to look into things, and that when the time was right for her to come forward, I would let her know.

"Viola didn't listen. She was determined to find these people, whoever they were, and give them the information she held. She knew that it would put the senator behind bars, if they could get a prosecutor who would get the case to court. She moved back to New York, but she couldn't call me since my number was always blocked and she didn't know who these people were. She spent two years searching. But her activities, and her presence back in the city, tipped off Rickman. After he dealt with this one man, who'd gotten his information from somewhere else, long story, he sent his latest hired hit man after Viola.

"The rest, as you know, is history. You've lived it."

There was silence as both girls contemplated this information. Eddie's anger was tempered somewhat, but it had not evaporated.

"Why did you kidnap us?" She demanded.

"Approximately seven minutes after we took you, Maddox – said hired hit man – entered Richard's apartment with the intention of killing you and destroying the files in your backpack."

"They're not on me anymore. I gave them to Beckett, who took them to the precinct for safekeeping. They're in her desk." Eddie explained.

Technically, they were taped to the underside of the desk with a piece of fake-wood wallpaper over it so that it looked like the rest of the desk, but whatever.

"Why would he have killed me? Not that I don't care about you." Alexis quickly added, looking at Eddie.

"As a warning." Leon said. "Your father was meddling. This would have warned him what happened when he messed with Rickman."

Alexis' arm tightened around Eddie's shoulder reflexively, not only protectively but also fearfully. The pain that would have caused her father…

Wait.

"Do they know where we are?" She asked.

Leon shook his head. "No. You don't even know where you are."

"Don't be a smartass." Eddie shot.

"At least we know where you get it from now." Alexis muttered.

"I'd flip you off, but I kind of need you to like me right now." Eddie replied.

"I meant does he know that we're safe? That we're unharmed and that you'll take care of us?" Alexis asked.

Leon's face said it all. Her father knew nothing about where they were or what had happened. He'd be worried sick.

"I'll be checking up on you as much as I can." Leon explained. "For now, you'll just have to stay here. We've renovated this area of the building into a kind of apartment – you'll have television, food, clothing, anything you'd like. There will be a guard by the door for protection. If you need anything, just let him know."

"How long will we be here?" Alexis asked.

"Until it's safe." Leon replied.

He turned to leave.

"Watch your back, old man." Eddie snarled. "I just might run a knife through it."

Leon turned back to her. "Your anger, although understandable, is not entirely justified when directed towards me. I suggest you learn how to play nice."

Eddie looked like she might fly across the room and punch him again. Alexis tightened her grip on the girl, keeping her sitting. Leon and his two men walked out the door, closing it behind them. The girls could hear the lock click.

"I am going to blow his fucking brains out." Eddie growled.

"We can't afford to be angry with him." Alexis pointed out. "He has the keys to our cell, so to speak."

"There is no 'so to speak' here, freak." Eddie snapped. "He is literally holding us prisoner!"

"I'm just as upset about this as you are." Alexis said, trying to remain calm. "But there's no point in anger. You have every right to be angry. If I'd been through what you have, I'd be angry, too. In fact, I am angry. My dad's going to be worried and frightened, and there's nothing I can do to let him know that I'm okay. Pissed off, but okay. And that angers me. But like I said, there's nothing I can do. We have to make the best of this situation."

"And how's that?" Eddie demanded.

"Well…" Alexis looked around. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to find out about this building. And we need to stay on Leon's good side."

"Do you think that Leon is his real name?" Eddie asked.

"I don't know, and I don't care." Alexis replied. "But we're going to get out of here. You've always bragged about all that you've learned – your street smarts, knowing how to run or hide – well, now's your chance to prove it. Let's bust out."

Eddie nodded, her face relaxing into a grin. "Okay, then. Escape – now that I can get behind."

"But no more outbursts, okay?" Alexis ordered.

"Okay."

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Beckett paced back and forth in the bullpen like a caged animal. She'd been there since seven, when she'd driven over from the loft, leaving a sleeping Castle in bed with a note telling him where she'd gone. In the light of day, everything had seemed for definite, more solid. This was not the time for tears. This was the time for action. Somebody had messed with people that she cared about, and that meant that they had messed with Beckett. This was war.

And she was going to bring it right to their doorstep.

She was going to find who did this, and she was going to get their girls back. And when she did, when Alexis and Eddie were safe and sound at home, she was going to prosecute the asses of those responsible until they were locked up like the animals they were. Nobody messed with her family. Nobody.

Wait – _family_?

Kate's thoughts came to a screeching halt, piling up like a particularly terrible accident on a freeway. She had just thought of Alexis and Eddie as family. What did that mean?

_Don't be an emotional chicken, Kate._ She chastised herself. She knew what that meant.

Just a week or two ago she'd learned about Ryan and Jenny's baby, and she'd found herself imagining what it would be like to have one of her own with Rick. She'd spent loads of time with both of the girls, and had grown impossibly close to Alexis (Eddie was still holding out, but she understood the distance that comes with grief). She knew that she loved Rick. At this point, she couldn't see herself with anyone else. The very idea of not being with him was painful. Every time she thought about how close she'd been to losing him to her own stubbornness and stupidity, she felt something grab her heart and _squeeze_.

Kate stopped pacing, sat down at her desk, and did what her therapist was constantly asking her to do. She asked herself, _what do you want, Kate?_

She wanted to be a mother to Alexis. She wanted to give her advice about boys, and help her pack for college, and stroke her hair and hug her when things got tough. She wanted to be there for every joy, every triumph, and every failure and mistake.

She wanted to be close to Eddie, too. She could never replace the girl's mother, especially not so soon, but she hoped that they could still become close to one another; a female friend, one to come to with questions, or just to hang out with.

At that moment, she especially wanted both girls safe, so that she could hug the very life out of them and touch their faces and make sure that they were okay.

And she knew that while they had a long road ahead of them, and she would be fooling herself if she said it would be easy, she knew that someday, she wanted to marry Richard Castle.

She could almost here Dr. Burke congratulating her.

_Just don't be smug about it._ She thought.

"Kate!"

Beckett stood up, smiling as Castle strode out of the elevator, a coffee in each hand. "I hurried over as soon as I saw your note." He said, handing her one of the steaming cups of caffeine.

"Thanks." She said, taking a sip. "I was just going over everything to try and find out who took the girls, and I think I know who it is."

"Oh?" Castle asked.

"Don't sound so shocked, Castle." Beckett warned him. "I actually managed to solve quite a lot of cases before you came along."

"So who is it?" He asked.

"I think it's your dad. If he really is CIA, and he was keeping an eye on Viola, then he was keeping an eye on Eddie, too – maybe even you at this point. What if something was going to happen to them, or he deemed them unsafe, and he took them? What if he's got them?" Beckett held up a paper. "Will faxed me this an hour ago. It's the identity of the person who's blood we found on the knife. It belongs to an agent."

Castle swooped her into his arms and kissed her. Beckett was startled and nearly spilled her coffee, but managed to set it down on her desk so that she could wrap her arms around him and deepen the kiss.

"God, I love you." He breathed against her skin when they came up for air.

Before Beckett could respond, there was an outbreak of catcalling and cheers from one end of the room. Both of them whirled, startled.

Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie were all standing there, clapping, the biggest, happiest grins on their faces.

"Oh, girl, you have got some _explaining_ to do!" Lanie crowed, running over and hugging Beckett, who looked at Castle with a deer-in-the-headlights face. Lanie pulled back and looked at the writer. "You hurt my girl here, and they will never find your body. You got that, Writer Boy?"

Castle nodded, a little shell-shocked. Ryan and Esposito came over and clapped him on the back. "Dude, we'd threaten you, but we're a little too happy this finally happened for that." Espo told him.

"You're happy? I just won the betting pool." Lanie announced.

"Betting pool?" Beckett said, suspicion creeping into her voice.

"Don't worry, the precinct has one on these two as well." Ryan jerked his thumb at Espo and Lanie. "I just won that one 'cause they walked in here together and it was pretty clear that – ow!"

Ryan rubbed his shoulder where Espo had punched it.

"What are you three even doing here?" Castle asked.

"Man, we heard about the girls." Esposito said. "Ryan and I were coming in early to try and get started, see if we could help."

"I just asked Javi to drop me at work on his way in." Lanie explained. She leveled her gaze at Beckett. "And yes, we're back together, I'll explain after you buy me dinner and give me the scoop."

"Well all of this relationship stuff is fantastic, but if I can be selfish for a minute ask that we get back to trying to find the girls?" Castle asked. He tried to go for his usual sense of humor, but everyone could see the pain etched on his face.

"Come on, boys." Beckett said, pulling out the file from under her desk for all of them to see. "We've got work to do."

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Eddie was staring at the gleaming chess set. It wasn't her chess set, but it would do for now. Two of the pieces were herself and Alexis – the others were all obstacles, human and otherwise, that stood between them and getting back to Castle and Beckett. She flexed her fingers, working everything out in her head.

Alexis was sitting cross-legged on the other bed, watching Eddie work. The blond girl's eyes roved over the board, and Alexis could almost see the ideas and strategies as they flicked through her brain. It had been cool, although a little annoying, to watch Eddie beat her in every game of chess they played, but this was simply fascinating. There was something so real about this, the stakes so much higher than simple bragging rights, and Eddie's brain was taking the problem and examining it from every side, picking it apart piece by piece and putting back together as a solution.

It took the better part of two hours, but everything finally fit together. Eddie's hands moved almost of their own accord, her expression never changing as she shifted piece after piece, moving everything around on the board. It was a black-and-white kaleidoscope, everything shifting and moving so quickly it almost made Alexis queasy. When Eddie's hands finally stilled, the pieces had all been moved around so that they were scattered across the board. Alexis couldn't make sense of any of it, but Eddie pointed triumphantly to two white pawns, sitting pretty on the opposite side of the board.

"A player is allowed to trade a pawn for a more valuable piece that has already been taken, if that pawn makes it safely from one end of the chess board to the other. No other piece can do this." Eddie intoned.

Alexis frowned. "So… you're saying that we're the two pawns?"

Eddie grinned. "I'm saying, I found a way to get us out."

:::::::::::::::::::::

Alexis gave an ear-shattering scream.

The guard on the other side of the door burst in, gun at the ready, which made Alexis scream more. When he asked her what was wrong, she just pointed to the floor and kept screaming. It took a full minute to calm her down.

"S-s-sp-spid-er!" Alexis choked out. "I… I h-have a-arach-arachnophobia. It was… it was h-huge!"

The guard turned to look for the spider. Eddie reappeared from where she'd slipped out the door, pointing the man's spare gun right at his chest.

"Say goodnight, Gracie." She said, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck the man's bulletproof chest, just as Eddie had predicted it would, and he flew into the wall, crashing to the floor and falling into unconsciousness.

"You like Burns and Allen?" Alexis said excitedly.

"Could we have this conversation later?" Eddie asked. She removed the guard's radio and ushered Alexis out, closing the door behind them. It locked automatically.

"Don't you want your chess set?" Alexis asked.

"It's not mine, and I don't need it. I can see it in my mind." Eddie assured her. "Now let's go."

The building the girls had been in was actually an extremely large warehouse near the docks. Other than the few parts that been renovated for their living quarters, the rest was still a maze of dark pipes and corridors. It would have confused anyone who wasn't prepared. But Eddie, and therefore Alexis, was prepared.

They didn't run. Instead, they walked at a careful pace, Eddie keeping an eye on her watch the entire time. She'd listened for the sound of the car arriving and leaving versus the sound of the new guard arriving when they changed shifts, and timed the passage of silence between the two sounds. Then she'd calculated roughly how much time it had taken the person to get from the car to their 'apartment'. That had narrowed down the entrances and helped her to figure out which route to take once they got out.

"Are you sure you know the way?" Alexis asked.

They turned a corner and Eddie pushed open the door, leading them into sunlight.

"I think this is the part where I look at you smugly." Eddie quipped.

The girls broke into a run, Eddie quickly taking in their approximate location.

"Okay." She said. "I know where we are; I used to live around here. Follow me, and promise me that whatever I tell you to do, you do it. Promise?"

Alexis nodded. "I promise."

They ran through the warehouses, moving away from the river and towards the main part of the city. After who knew how many minutes (although Alexis had a feeling that Eddie could tell her exactly how many), they skidded to a stop by a phone booth.

"Look for a coin – any kind of coin." Eddie said quickly. They had no change on them.

All that Alexis could find was a penny.

"Perfect." Eddie dragged her into the phone booth.

There was hardly any room for them, but Eddie managed to crouch down. "Pick up the receiver. When I tell you to, you're going to dial Oliver's number."

"Oliver?" Alexis was a little surprised, to say the least. "What makes you think I have his number?"

"He asked you out on a date, didn't he? And you said yes, didn't you? How else would he be able to contact you with details if you didn't exchange numbers?" Eddie snorted. "And who did you think that I thought you were texting every time you had your phone with you at the hospital?"

Alexis' cheeks burned. "But why am I calling him?"

"Because he's the one person that we can trust, and the one person that neither Maddox or Leon would think for us to go to." Eddie said. "Your parents, your best friend, any other family members… those are the three places you absolutely can't go when you're fleeing someone. There the places you go to automatically, and every good agent or assassin knows that. But Oliver's just a casual friend from work as far as anyone knows. Thank goodness you never got around to that date or I'd have to rule him out, too. Significant others are a no-no as well."

"But we don't have any money." Alexis protested.

"Just dial when I tell you!"

Eddie bent down and, using the penny like a screwdriver, began to open up and successfully hijack the payphone.

Alexis knew for a fact that they were breaking three major laws.

"Okay, dial." Eddie said.

Alexis took a deep breath and punched in the numbers. While the phone rang, Eddie gave her instructions.

"Say exactly what I tell you to say – don't change a word." Eddie insisted.

Alexis nodded. She not only had to trust her cousin, but she found that, well, she honestly did trust her. There might be definite things about Eddie that she found annoying, but in the end she was an ally. They were in this thing together.

"Hello?" Oliver's voice was a lot more comforting than it should have been.

"Oliver!" Alexis said, repeating the words that Eddie whispered to her. "Listen, I know this is going to sound weird, but would you be able to do me a big favor?"

"Um… sure?"

"I need you to pick up me and a friend." Alexis listened to Eddie, and then rattled off the park. She'd never even heard of that location, and she was the head of the Clean Parks Initiative! "We'll be there in about fifteen minutes. Can you make it in twenty?"

"Sure." Oliver said. "Is everything okay?"

Eddie heard, and gave Alexis something to say.

"I'm in a bit of trouble, but please don't go to the police. It's kind of a family thing. I'll explain everything when we're back at your house. Oh, and I promise that I'll go on that date as soon as this is cleared up." Alexis' eyes bugged out at that, but she repeated it anyway.

Eddie grinned, and Alexis mimed strangling her.

"Sounds good. I'll be there." Oliver promised.

"Thanks so much!" Alexis said. "I'm wearing a blue shirt and jeans, and my friend is wearing a brown shirt and jeans. Oh, and she's blonde. Thanks!" She hung up.

"You forgot incredibly hot and single and wondering if he has a twin brother." Eddie said.

Alexis glared at her. "Thanks for the date thing, by the way." She said sarcastically.

"Hey, you repeated it to him. Now come on; we're on a time constraint." Eddie unceremoniously pushed Alexis out of the phone booth, and they took off running again.

Alexis had no idea how they got to the park, but Eddie seemed to have a map of NYC in her head that she followed like a dog chasing after a squirrel. When they reached a bench, Alexis sat down, breathing heavily. She exercised as much as she could but seriously, they just sprinted for the last fifteen minutes.

"Come here." Eddie tugged on her arm. Alexis stood automatically and allowed the girl to lead her to a clump of trees. Eddie indicated one of them. "Climb." She instructed.

True to her promise, Alexis did not question her cousin but climbed the tree. Eddie followed.

"I wish we had sweaters – that would make hiding a lot easier. Everyone can see our faces. By staying in the tree, we can see everything but people won't automatically see us. People don't look up or down, they look straight ahead. If it's not at the height of their line of sight, they won't notice it right away. People also notice movement more than they notice still objects, so if you think someone's seen you, press yourself against the nearest surface and freeze." Eddie explained.

Alexis nodded.

Eddie watched the time tick on her watch. Exactly four minutes and thirty seconds after they settled into the tree, a familiar brown-haired boy strode into the park.

"That's him!" Alexis said. She moved to jump out of the tree, but Eddie grabbed her arm.

"Wait." She instructed.

"Why? You said we have a time constraint." Alexis argued.

"Doesn't mean that Leon didn't figure it out and get to him first. We have to make sure he's alone." Eddie frowned. "He won't recognized me right away. I don't see any agents but he might be wearing a headset. Stay here."

Eddie dropped to the ground, and then strolled casually through the park, passing Oliver. She had her hands over her ears and her eyes closed, bobbing her head like she was listening to music. After she'd walked about ten feet past him, she turned and waved to Alexis to come on down.

Alexis jumped out of the tree and ran over to Oliver. Eddie also made her way back over, standing next to the other girl.

"Hey!" Oliver looked concerned. "Is everything all right?"

"It will be." Alexis said, smiling. She'd had no idea how good it would be to see him again. "Can we go back to your place?"

"Like, now?" Eddie said.

"That's my cousin Eddie." Alexis said.

"You have a cousin?" Oliver looked confused.

"I said it was kind of a family thing." Alexis said. "I'll tell you when we're at your place."

Oliver's car was parked at one of the metered spots along the side of the park. They all piled in and he drove them back to his house. Eddie sat in the back, watching the cars around them to make sure that they weren't followed. When they got safely inside the (very nice) brownstone, Eddie immediately asked if Oliver's family had a landline.

They did, fortunately, and Eddie asked Alexis to call the 12th Precinct.

"But don't ask them to give you Beckett's extension." She said.

Alexis frowned. Beckett had given her the extension shortly after they'd first met, telling Alexis that if anything happened that would be the work of homicide to not bother calling 9-1-1 but just calling Beckett instead, and she'd get someone there to her faster. "Why not?" Alexis asked.

"Someone might be keeping tabs on her. Geez, do you trust me or not? My mom taught me how to avoid getting caught, this is what I know." Eddie tried not to think about how much her mom might have learned from Leon.

Alexis dialed the precinct number and waited for the operator.

"Tell them you want to speak to the captain." Eddie said.

Alexis repeated this, and a moment later she was patched through.

"Captain Gates of the 12th speaking – how can I help you?" Came a strong female voice.

"I'm sorry, I think I dialed the wrong extension. Can I speak to Detective Beckett?" Alexis asked, repeating Eddie's whispered words.

"Hold on one moment." Gates said. "Detective Beckett!" They could hear her shout.

A moment later, Beckett's voice came through the phone. "Hello?"

"Kate!" Alexis cried, relief flooding her system.

"Alexis?" Beckett's voice broke. "Alexis?"

"Yes, yes it's me, Eddie's here too, we're safe!" Alexis assured her.

There was a sound of what could have been a sob, except Alexis had never heard or seen Beckett cry. Then she heard Beckett call out,

"Castle! Castle it's Alexis!"

Then her dad was on the phone, and Alexis started to cry. "Alexis? Pumpkin, is that you?"

"It's me, yes, Daddy it's me!" Alexis hadn't called him 'Daddy' in years. "We're both here and safe."

"Where are you?"

"We're at a friend's house." Alexis looked over at Eddie for instructions. "Eddie says, don't come here. I'll give you the address and you can send a squad car to pick us up. Just find some beat cops nearby or something."

"Um, can I ask why?" Her dad asked.

"Eddie says that she'll explain when we're safely with you. She says… oh for crying out loud, it's not a freaking talent! She says this is what she's good at." Alexis rolled her eyes.

"It is too a talent." Eddie replied, a tad miffed.

"Okay. Alexis, you stay right where you are. Give me the address and we'll send someone for you girls." Castle said. "I love you, honey, and I'll see you real soon."

"I know." Alexis smiled, her eyes watering. "I'll see you soon."

She hung up.

Over at the 12th Precinct, Beckett broke down into sobs of relief.

:::::::::::::::::::::

It took a good hour, but they eventually got down to brass tacks. First, Alexis broke down in her father's arms, not realizing just how wound up and stressed she'd been until she was in the safety of his embrace. Beckett cried just a little, squeezing Alexis so tightly that Alexis joked about not being able to breathe. But when Becket kissed the top of her head, the teen snuggled in closer and tightened her own grip, smiling. Eddie accepted a hug from both her uncle (that still sounded weird in her head) and the detective, and admitted that it felt good to be back with them.

"I gotta admit, I like shooting that gun." She confessed.

Castle looked a little horrified and said something about taking in a monster, but Beckett just laughed and promised to take both girls to the shooting range as soon as possible.

Then Ryan and Esposito had to come over and hug 'Little Castle', meet Eddie, and hear the story of the girls' daring exploits. Finally Gates came over and broke the party up, reminding them that they were on the clock and if they wanted to celebrate they could do it outside of her precinct.

So the six of them – Castle, Beckett, Ryan, Esposito, Alexis and Eddie – all went into the break room and sat down around the table, the papers and files all spread out in front of them.

"It's Senator Rickman." Castle said slowly.

Both Eddie and Alexis nodded.

"Evidence we pulled to go with what's in here," Espo tapped the papers with his forefinger, "Matches."

"The problem is getting to him." Ryan said. "He's a Senator, that's not going to be easy."

"Not if he confesses." Beckett said. That was what she always tried to go for – the confession. It was the clincher, the way to guarantee that whatever scumbag she was after would be behind bars for sure.

"But how are we going to do that?" Ryan asked.

Esposito looked at him, his look plainly reading _dude, stop being the spoilsport and think of something._

"I think that I know of a way." Beckett said. She looked over at Eddie. "But I'm going to need some of your expertise."

"I think I have something, too." Alexis added. She grinned. "I never told you what Oliver's mom does for a living."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Excuse me, Senator?" The leggy brunette walked towards the politician as he made his way to the elevator.

Senator Rickman didn't pause but kept walking, entering the elevator. The woman, mahogany curls swinging, slipped in just before the doors closed, casually pushing the bodyguard out of the way so that he did not make it in with his employer.

That left the senator and the woman alone. Casually, as if she were applying makeup or flipping channels, she thumbed the Emergency Stop button on the lift.

The elevator shuddered to a halt.

The woman turned to Rickman, her hand in her coat pocket. He could see the outline of the gun pointed at him.

"My name is Detective Beckett. You might have heard of me." The woman said, her voice clipped and sharp.

"I'm sorry… I don't know you." The senator replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You knew my mother, Johanna Becket. Or, rather, you knew her well enough to kill her."

"I think you're a little delusional. I never killed anybody."

The woman merely held up a paper. "This is a bank receipt showing money going from a bank account set up by three corrupt cops to hold their earnings from mob kidnappings, to your personal savings account. And that's just the beginning of the proof we have against you."

Rickman paled, tiny pink spots appearing on his cheeks. "I doubt that'll hold up in court. And what attorney would possibly prosecute me? You've got nothing."

"But it's the truth, and you know it." The woman took a step closer. "And I know it. And I'm not going to stop until I have you behind bars."

"You've got nothing." He snarled. "What are you? A delusional cop who can't move past her mother's death? I'm a pillar of the community, an upstanding citizen."

"You forget that you didn't just kill one mother. You killed two. Viola Baker had a daughter, Rickman; a daughter that watched her mother as she bled out in front of her. At least I didn't have to go through that. You're going to have to answer for what you did."

"You just don't get it, do you?" Rickman spat. "I am untouchable. I did it, sure, I ordered all of those hits. Your mother, Viola Baker, Montgomery, everyone. And I can stand here and say that because you and I both know that there's nothing you can do about it."

The elevator jolted and began to move again. Rickman smiled triumphantly at the woman, who shook her hair out of her face. The senator frowned.

"Hey – doesn't Detective Beckett have brown eyes?"

"Oh, so you do know her." The woman replied. Her voice was a lot higher pitched and younger now. "I thought so."

The elevator doors opened to reveal the real Beckett, with Ryan and Esposito, their guns drawn. Eddie drew her hand out of her pocket, showing her thumb and forefinger pointed like a gun.

"Oldest trick in the book." She declared happily. "Oh, hey, didja know, Senator, that these elevators have recording cameras complete with sound?"

"Senator Rickman, you are under arrest for the murder of Johanna Beckett and Viola Baker. You are also under arrest for charges of fraud, extortion, theft, and who knows what the hell else." Beckett finished. She made the handcuffs extra tight. "I'm going to make you burn for this." She whispered darkly.

"I still stand on my original position, Detective. No one will prosecute me." Rickman said.

Alexis cleared her throat. Everyone turned. "Dad, I'd like to introduce my boyfriend, Oliver Reagan. Did you know that his mom is an attorney in the DA's office? She's been waiting for a high-profile case like this for years."

Castle decided to pointedly ignore the fact that Oliver and Alexis were holding hands. Well, he'd ignore it for now.

"You know you could have a future as an actress." He told Eddie, who was taking off the long brunette wig. "That was quite the act you did there."

"Thanks." Eddie said, stepping out of the high-heeled boots. They were stuffed with special blocks that made her taller. The shorter-than-it-looked skirt had helped, too. "But I still really like chess."

Alexis groaned. "One actress in the family is enough. She's insufferable now – imagine what will happen if fame gets to her head!"

"C'mon, freak." Eddie said. "Help me change, this outfit is ludicrous."

Alexis gave Oliver a kiss on the cheek and ran to help her cousin.

Beckett handed the soon-to-be-former Senator Rickman over to some uniforms before turning to Castle.

"So?" He asked. "Was it what you thought it would be?"

Beckett thought for a moment. "Well, it felt good. I won't deny that." She wrapped her arms around him. "But this feels better."

And she kissed him, right there in the middle of the crowded room, completely ignoring the flashing cameras, Ryan and Esposito's dropped jaws, and the reaction of the various people ogling the goings on.

"Love you." She murmured.

"Always." Castle replied.

**Yay! The Big Baddie is locked up for good! We did it, we did it, woohoo! (I'm shocked that I managed to get through all of this. Eek.) One final chapter to go, and then it's closing time, folks! Thanks for the endless support and kind words! They mean more to me than chocolate. And that is saying something.**

**I made a Shakespearean reference, as well as a reference to two different Castle episodes – one in season four and the other in season five. Me? Challenging you? I don't know what you're talking about.**


	9. Chapter 9

**And now it's time for some fluffles! Yes, I know that's not a word. You can stop looking at me strangely.**

"That was pretty awesome."

Alexis laughed. "Did you see his face when the door opened and he saw Kate? Oh my gosh…"

Oliver grinned. "I love your laugh."

Alexis blushed. "Um, thanks."

"So, Columbia, huh?"

Alexis nodded. "I really wanted Stanford, and Oxford as well, but I finally realized that I couldn't go so far away from home."

"No, it's great." Oliver replied. "Means it's only a half hour subway ride to see you."

Alexis blushed again. "I will have classes, you know."

"Hey, I've got classes too – NYU isn't all fun and games." Oliver insisted.

"Sure." Alexis rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

They strolled for a few minutes in silence. When they reached the door to the lobby of Alexis' apartment building, they stopped.

"Want me to help you move in?" Oliver asked.

"I'd like that, but I think my dad's got it covered." Alexis said. "But you could pick me up for dinner that night if you want."

He kissed her gently on the lips. "I'll call you."

Alexis stood there, watching him walk away, until someone grabbed her by the shoulders from behind. She yelped and jumped a mile.

"Hey there, lazy. Are you finally gonna help me and Castle carry up all of Kate's crap?" Eddie said. "Or are you gonna stand there like a lovestruck doofus all day?"

"I heard that!" Beckett called from the curb, where she was unloading a rather heavy-looking box.

"I am not a doofus." Alexis muttered, but she went to help take up boxes.

:::::::::::::::::::

If you had told Kate Beckett that she would be moving in with a man after only dating him for three and a half months, she'd have told you that you were crazy and she had a great therapist to recommend. And yet, here she was at the end of August, lugging up boxes of clothes and a few things she couldn't bear to sell. Most of the stuff in her apartment was just that – stuff – and she was fine with getting rid of it. But a few things, like her mom's collection of dishes and her book collection (not to mention her science fiction DVD collection, which included _Alien_ and _Firefly_), she was taking with her.

Castle was happily finding room for said dishes in his kitchen cupboards, while the girls lugged the boxes of clothes into the master bedroom. Kate set her collection of films by Castle's DVD rack to be sorted later.

"I think that's everything." She said. There'd been enough boxes to fill up the backseat and trunk of her squad car, but that had been it.

"Finally!" Eddie said, flopping down onto the couch.

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body." Alexis quipped, looking down at her cousin. "And, maybe, if you worked out with me, you wouldn't be so out of breath."

Eddie mumbled something about exactly where Alexis could stuff her workout routine.

Castle looked across the loft to Beckett and grinned. He had been uncharacteristically nervous when asking her to move in, but now he was nothing but giddy and excited, like a puppy that knows its going for a walk or is getting a new chew toy.

Speaking of toys, where was her box of…?

"Oh, hey, Kate, that one box labeled 'Private'?" Eddie said from the couch. "Can I borrow some of that stuff?"

Kate flushed bright red.

"Although, Alexis is the one who'll really be needing the fluffy hand–"

Alexis' hand clamped over Eddie's mouth so fast it made a smacking sound.

"I better not be hearing what I think I'm hearing." Castle called.

Beckett bit her lip to keep from laughing. Oh yes, she would need to have a talk with those girls very soon…

She looked up, and her eyes met Castle's. She had just moved in with him. She had just moved in with _Castle_. A big step, one that would have scared the living daylights out of her no more than six months ago, now felt insignificant and no big deal. It felt… natural.

And realizing that was the greatest feeling in the world.

:::::::::::::::::

"What are you taking, the entire contents of your room?" Eddie grumbled. "This is the second time I've had to help someone move in two weeks. My arms were not built for this."

"They would be, if you exercised." Alexis said breezily, setting down her box. "And be grateful I put all of my book collection on Kindle, or you'd have to help me move all of those in, too."

Eddie groaned.

"Wow, does this ever bring back memories." Beckett said, stepping into the room with a box. "This is your bedding, honey, where do you want it?"

"If you could just put it on my bed, that'd be great." Alexis said.

"Are they the kind of memories we could re-enact in bed later?" Castle asked Beckett in a low voice.

"Sure. You can be the crazy roommate who takes up all the room, and I'll be the long-suffering girl who tries not to murder her in the middle of the night." Beckett replied cheerfully.

"You're an evil woman." Castle responded.

"Oh, darling!" Martha said, spreading her arms wide. "Does this ever bring back memories!"

Castle looked from his mother to his girlfriend, his eyes wide with panic. "Did you two just…?"

"The boys I would bring back to these rooms…" Martha said, giving a romantic sigh.

"Gram!"

"Mother!"

"Martha!"

"Go on." Beckett grinned devilishly. Seeing Castle's horrified face, she winked.

Alexis and Eddie made disgusted faces that were shockingly identical.

Between the four of them (Martha was no help at all), they were able to get Alexis completely unpacked and settled in with twenty minutes to spare before dorm meeting.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" Eddie said. "You won't have me there to get you out of trouble."

"Or get me into it." Alexis reminded her. "And you'll be joining me in a year, once you get your GED and take care of the SAT."

"And the ACT. Don't remind me." Eddie made a gagging noise.

The two girls looked at each other for a beat, and then hugged fiercely.

"I'm gonna miss you, freak." Eddie whispered.

"You too, chess nerd." Alexis replied, tightening her grip.

They pulled back, laughing to cover up the tears in their eyes.

Beckett was next. Alexis nearly bowled her over with the force of her hug and Beckett laughed, squeezing her tightly. "Be sure to call or Skype with any questions, okay baby?" She asked.

"Okay." Alexis replied, burying her head into the juncture between Beckett's neck and shoulder. "I love you, Kate." She whispered.

Beckett nearly pulled back in shock, but recovered. "I love you too, Alexis." She kissed the top of the girl's head, stroking the red hair fondly.

"Oh, come here, darling!" Martha pulled Alexis into a hug. "Just think of all the fun you're going to have! Oh I'm going to miss you so much…" She kissed Alexis with a loud 'mwah'. "I do love you darling. Be sure to enjoy this – you only get to experiment once."

Upon seeing the faces of her son, grandniece and sort-of-daughter-in-law, she made a scandalized noise. "I meant with academics and what she wants in life! What did you think I meant?"

Nobody wanted to answer _that_ loaded question, although Eddie muttered something about toga parties and copious amounts of liquor. Alexis laughed.

Alexis said goodbye to her father last.

"I'm going to miss you." She murmured. The words barely even began to cover how she felt. He was her first, last, and best friend. He was there for her no matter what. He had done his best to be a better man for her, and while he wasn't always the most responsible of people, he was the most fun, open, caring, generous, loving parent she knew. She wouldn't trade him for all the world.

And now, she had to say goodbye. Not forever, certainly, but to this stage of their relationship. She was an adult now, entering an adult world where he couldn't always be there to catch her when she fell. She was going to have to go it on her own in a way that she had never done before, and while she'd been responsible and independent almost from birth, it was always with the knowledge that if she had to, she could let go and he would catch her. He would always be there. Now, it was all on her, and it wouldn't ever be the same. Not worse, just different and new.

It was a little scary.

Their hug lasted the longest by far.

"I love you, Pumpkin." He promised her. "And if you need me, no matter what time it is, or where I am or where you are, or what the reason is, I'll be there. And I don't care if you experiment – or with what or with whom. I don't care if you go partying every night or if you stay cooped up in here and study every day. I'll always be proud of you, and I'll always come running if you call."

Alexis nodded into his chest.

"And I'm going to miss you every single minute of the day, and I'm going to need severe distracting to get through the grief and trauma."

"Gee, I don't know who could help you with that." Alexis chuckled, winking at Kate.

She pulled back so that she could look into her father's face. "I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, sweetheart. Always."

Alexis smiled.

"Now go!" Castle said, waving her off. "Go have fun! Make friends! Be crazy! All that stuff! Just ask yourself, 'what would my dad do in college?' and then do the exact opposite."

Alexis laughed and waved as they filed out of the dorm room. Eddie was last, tossing her a box of something.

"Until you get up the courage to buy 'em yourself." She winked. "I okay'd it with Kate, but don't tell your dad."

Alexis looked down at the box of condoms and burst out laughing.

Only her family…

:::::::::::::::::

Castle relaxed against the couch, a glass of wine in his hand. Beckett sat down next to him, leaning back against his chest.

"I have to admit – it's nice to have the house to ourselves." He admitted, wrapping an arm around her.

Beckett hummed in agreement.

Martha swept downstairs in a cloud of color, scarves, and perfume. "Well, I'm off to the theater, darlings! And Richard, I know you're awfully cut up about Alexis, so I wanted to allay any fears – I have no intention of moving out any time soon." She placed a hand over her heart. "It's a sacrifice, but it's the responsibility of a mother." She then smiled. "Have fun! I'll be back sometime after midnight… or two. Depends on how many cocktails I've had."

As Martha made her exit, Eddie shouted down the stairs.

"Now that you've officially adopted me, does that mean I can use your credit card to buy a new chess set?"

Castle sighed and looked at Beckett. "Well, it's kind of to ourselves."

Beckett laughed, standing and pulling him up with her. "C'mon, Writer Man." She said. "What do you say we take this to somewhere a little more private, hmm?"

They retreated to the bedroom, laughing and chasing each other the entire way.

::::::::::::::::::::

"Hey, freak."

"Heya. Did he say yes to the credit card?"

"He didn't answer."

"Hold on… there. I text you the number."

"Thanks. You're not half bad sometimes."

"Ha, ha. What are they up to?"

"Well, judging by the disappearance of the wine I was going to sneak a drink of and the locked bedroom door, I'm going to hazard a guess at–"

"Too much info, Eddie; too much info. So what's your theory about Leon?"

"I think once he saw that we took care of things he went back into the shadows. I doubt he'll come out again unless he feels he has to."

"He better not be the reason I got accepted to so many colleges."

"Aww, is your pride wounded?"

"Shut up."

"Shall we get back to the game?"

"All right. Rook to F-7."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Checkmate."

"You little-!"

"Remember, dear cousin – in chess, every move counts."

**There's really nothing more to say except for thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting me, thank you for taking the time to review when you could. Thank you, my beloved readers, because you are the ones who give me the inspiration and the drive to keep writing. And to the more discerning readers who should know better but read my stuff anyway and are thoughtful enough to give me advice, you are the ones who make me strive to do better and help me to constantly improve. So to all of you, thank you.**

**I'm being a little sentimental because as far as I know, this is the last multi-chapter plot-centric Castle story I'll be doing. I will always be writing Castle one-shots, but I do not see any big undertakings like this in the near future. So thank you all, always!**


End file.
